Inheritors of the Earth: How Nature Is Thriving in an Age of Extinction Kindle Edition

Looking at previous reviews of this book, it is apparent that there are a wide range of responses, from strict preservationists who oppose his ideas to others who seem to accept them without reservation. I decided to take the middle ground, because I think that both sides have some valid points. To me the key argument in this book is that evolution can work much more quickly than has been assumed in the past. Thomas falls into this trap himself, by stating at one point that it "takes millions of years for new species to appear" and then citing a number of examples where new species appear within a few decades.One problem is that Thomas does not distinguish between these categories or define what he means by species. As an example, Peter and Rosemary Grant have found evidence of new species appearing in Galapagos finches as a result of hybridization, which has happened since the 1980's. Hybridization is a very powerful source of new forms of life, some of which are better adapted to changing conditions than their parental forms. In plants, which is where Thomas centers his research, hybridization has long been recognized as a source of new variety, and it has been argued that large numbers of contemporary species are the result of ancient hybridization events. The problem is that zoologists, especially ornithologists, do not like hybridization, or believe in its importance, because they are locked into the idea that speciation only occurs when forms are completely reproductively isolated, i.e. they do not hybridize. This is a naive idea and can be very harmful in a time of major change, such as what is happening on the planet at present. Thomas does recognize the importance of hybridization and this is one of the strengths of this book. One issue with relying on biodiversity is that this concept needs to be clearly defined. If we are looking at plants and insects, which the average layperson does not, things are not nearly as bad as described. If we consider biodiversity to mostly involve large mammals, the way most people perceive of this, then things look much worse. Another issue I have with Thomas is that he seems to think that humans drove every large mammal species that has become extinct to its end. This is a much more controversial than he alludes and could actually be used to strengthen his arguments. If large mammal species went extinct because of climate change at the end of the ice age then we are seeing the outcome of natural phenomena, not simply of human activities. Blaming humans for every extinction is a dangerous road, because it leads us to assume that species can only exist if humans are absent, which then leads to removal of Indigenous peoples from habitats where they have helped maintain biodiversity and turns these people from solutions to problems. This is the source of the "Conservation refugee" problem that has led to poaching in Africa. As one other reviewer has pointed out, the elephant in the room for Thomas, is human overpopulation. If we do not get populations under control, which is best achieved through education and empowerment of women, all best are off. To summarize, the best aspects of this book are its emphasis on our new understandings of rapid evolutionary change, including hybridization. The weaker aspects of this book are its acceptance of human population growth and its overemphasis on plants, which leads him to ignore issues in marine ecosystems, where threats are probably greater.

This book is very challenging. For those of us who have a strong love of nature and a long exposure to the conventional wisdom of conservation (invasive species are terrible, we are in the 6th mass extinction, etc.) this can be an uncomfortable read! But I think the perspective here is really worth thinking about. Unlike what another reviewer stated, Thomas does not think that extinctions are "all good" and that we should aim for a world of chickens and pigs. What he does do is take an unfamiliar look at the new species that are being created as humans move everything around. Shouldn't we celebrate the power of nature to creatively thrive in crazy times as well as worry about tigers and rhinos and protecting them?

I turned the last page of this book with a feeling that I was in quite a different world than before. We still have to work hard to protect rare species, but I am seeing many of the changes around us as adaptation rather than as decline and degradation. We can't freeze the world in amber or go back in time--but we can work WITH nature as it evolves and adapts to changing conditions and try to keep biodiversity levels high. That some of that biodiversity will be new or in the "wrong" place is something I am going to have to get used to, but this book is helping me see that this "counts" too. This would be a great book for an environmental book club. I definitely wanted to talk through it after I read it.

Chris D. Thomas believes that if Planet Earth could survive the asteroid that killed all the dinosaurs, it can handle all the damage being done to it that humans. In his new book Inheritors of the Earth: How Nature is Thriving in an Age of Extinction, Thomas, citing numerous scientific studies, postulates that the number of plant and animal species is actually increasing. Of course, the climate change deniers disagree. Climate change denial is part of the global warming controversy. It involves denial, dismissal, unwarranted doubt or contrarian views contradicting the scientific opinion on climate change, including the extent to which it is caused by humans, its impacts on nature and human society, or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions. Some deniers do endorse the term, but others often prefer the term “climate change skepticism.”
Thomas writes that more new plant species have come into existence in Britain during the past three hundred years than have gone extinct, and his writing has generated yet a third group of protestors he calls “gloom-merchants.” One of them reviewed his book on Amazon, commenting, “This is the kind of insanity that you expect to hear from environmental apologists who want you to believe that climate change isn't really a bad thing. But it's a lie.” But Thomas is no apologist—he says many times that climate change is not a good thing but it has scientific repercussions that we did not expect, like the development of new species to fill extinction niches caused by climate change. Thomas is a professor of conservation biology at the University of York and one of the most renowned ecologists in the world. He accuses the “gloom-merchants” of focusing solely on the losses of plant and animal species while ignoring evolutionary acceleration that is creating new species much faster than before. Rather than climate change causing the “sixth extinction,” Thomas writes that “Once these new species have evolved into increasingly distinct forms, the advent of humans could be seen to have substantially increased the biological diversity of the Earth. A sixth genesis.” I recommend this book highly.