Inheritors of the Earth by Chris D. Thomas
Inheritors of the Earth
Inheritors of the Earth: How Nature Is Thriving in an Age of Extinction by Chris D. Thomas challenges current narratives about humankind causing mass extinctions.
Rethinking Biodiversity
This nuanced book explores biological systems in aggregate, over time. A key insight is that human timescales are vastly different from the timescales of earth’s biology, leading us to overestimate human impact in some ways.
Challenging Conventional Wisdom
The author makes some surprising claims, such as dismissing the concept of invasive species as incoherent. He convincingly argues that biological diversity has actually increased in many contexts, that mass extinction is not occurring as commonly perceived, and that human activity is in some ways increasing biological diversity.
Conservation Approach
Thomas doesn’t advocate abandoning environmental protection. Instead, he discusses what has and hasn’t worked in protecting biological diversity, offering a more nuanced view of human-nature interactions that avoids both alarmism and complacency.