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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
informative
slow-paced
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Loved it but it needed more illustrations so I didn’t need to keep stopping to google all those animals/plants/insects.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
A Travelogue through prehistory
Well written, a blend of facts based pn paleontology and creative imagination for descriptive details. Each vignette is an interesting locale and period.
Well written, a blend of facts based pn paleontology and creative imagination for descriptive details. Each vignette is an interesting locale and period.
Dazzling, evocative and thought provoking. Finally a book that got my head around what evolved when, and how, and what led to their sad demise. So immersive, and by travelling back in time, all the weirdness feels almost normal by the time you reach it, this is a fascinating unraveling of all that has gone before, and a warning of what’s likely around the corner if humans don’t get our act together. One of the best reads for getting some perspective of our utter insignificance in the history of this enigmatic planet.
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
I completely zoned out while reading this. I already don't remember it.
informative
slow-paced
Though a history buff, for once I am going to go somewhat futuristic here. Not that this book by evolutionary biologist Thomas Halliday (University of Birmingham) predicts the future, on the contrary. But the merit of this book lies mainly in the fact that – by looking at the past – it gives us a better insight into the complexity of the challenges we face today (deterioration of the biosphere, extinction of species, climate change). In this book, Halliday does this by outlining the evolution of life on earth in 16 steps, from about 550 million years ago to 20,000 BP, albeit in reverse order.
Halliday believes in looking at the past to see scenarios for the future: "It is by looking at the past that palaeobiologists, ecologists and climate scientists can address the uncertainty about the near- and long-term future of our planet, casting backwards to predict possible futures." His chapters are regularly full of general reflections on the complexity and evolution of Earth's ecosystems, reflections that are extremely relevant for the future. There is a lot to be learned from past extinctions and collapses in particular: “In the complex game that is an ecosystem, every player is connected to some, but not all, others, a web not just of food but of competition, of who lives where, of light and shade, and of internal disputes within species. Extinction bursts through that web, breaking connections and its threatening integrity. Sever one strand, and it wavers, reshapes, but survives. Tear another, and it will still hold. Over long periods, repairs are made as species adapt, and new balances are reached, new associations made. If enough strands are broken at once, the web will collapse, drifting in the breeze, and the world will have to make do with what little remains. So, after a mass extinction event, a turnover happens, with new species appearing, the web self-repairing.”
Halliday does emphasize that in these processes of extinction and recovery the notion of time, in the sense of long duration (in practice usually millions of years), is extremely relevant. And therefore also in the current climate problem: “The uncertainty is not in the final temperature, only in the time it takes for the atmosphere to adjust, because the feedback systems of the planet’s environment ensure that there is a lag between reaching atmospheric stability and a final temperature plateau. The only way to ensure that we don’t reach these concentrations, and therefore these temperatures, is to reduce carbon emissions at a greater rate than is currently planned.”
Based on his research, the author is remarkably optimistic, albeit with an important warning: “Life recovers, and extinction is followed by diversification. That is, in its way, a comfort, but it is not the whole story. Recovery brings radical change, and often startlingly different worlds, into being, while also taking, at a minimum, tens of thousands of years. Recovery cannot replace what has been lost.” Yet he clearly believes in human agency: “We know what can happen during environmentally turbulent periods like the one in which we live. In mapping the past, we can predict the future, and find the routes that avert disaster. Where some disastrous outcomes are inevitable, we can plan for them, minimize the damage and mitigate them.” And for this, respect for our planet and its biosphere is an absolute condition: “For our long-term well-being as a species and as individuals, we must enter into a more mutualistic relationship with our global environments. Only then can we preserve not just their infinite variety, but also our place within them. Change, eventually, is inevitable, but we can let the planet take its own time, as we allow the shifting sands of geological time to lead us gently into the worlds of tomorrow. Sacrifice, an act of permanence. Then, we too will live in hope.” I'm not sure whether this outlook offers much comfort, but the way Halliday looks at the past to offer benchmarks for the future (and hence also the present) is inspiring, to say the least!
Halliday believes in looking at the past to see scenarios for the future: "It is by looking at the past that palaeobiologists, ecologists and climate scientists can address the uncertainty about the near- and long-term future of our planet, casting backwards to predict possible futures." His chapters are regularly full of general reflections on the complexity and evolution of Earth's ecosystems, reflections that are extremely relevant for the future. There is a lot to be learned from past extinctions and collapses in particular: “In the complex game that is an ecosystem, every player is connected to some, but not all, others, a web not just of food but of competition, of who lives where, of light and shade, and of internal disputes within species. Extinction bursts through that web, breaking connections and its threatening integrity. Sever one strand, and it wavers, reshapes, but survives. Tear another, and it will still hold. Over long periods, repairs are made as species adapt, and new balances are reached, new associations made. If enough strands are broken at once, the web will collapse, drifting in the breeze, and the world will have to make do with what little remains. So, after a mass extinction event, a turnover happens, with new species appearing, the web self-repairing.”
Halliday does emphasize that in these processes of extinction and recovery the notion of time, in the sense of long duration (in practice usually millions of years), is extremely relevant. And therefore also in the current climate problem: “The uncertainty is not in the final temperature, only in the time it takes for the atmosphere to adjust, because the feedback systems of the planet’s environment ensure that there is a lag between reaching atmospheric stability and a final temperature plateau. The only way to ensure that we don’t reach these concentrations, and therefore these temperatures, is to reduce carbon emissions at a greater rate than is currently planned.”
Based on his research, the author is remarkably optimistic, albeit with an important warning: “Life recovers, and extinction is followed by diversification. That is, in its way, a comfort, but it is not the whole story. Recovery brings radical change, and often startlingly different worlds, into being, while also taking, at a minimum, tens of thousands of years. Recovery cannot replace what has been lost.” Yet he clearly believes in human agency: “We know what can happen during environmentally turbulent periods like the one in which we live. In mapping the past, we can predict the future, and find the routes that avert disaster. Where some disastrous outcomes are inevitable, we can plan for them, minimize the damage and mitigate them.” And for this, respect for our planet and its biosphere is an absolute condition: “For our long-term well-being as a species and as individuals, we must enter into a more mutualistic relationship with our global environments. Only then can we preserve not just their infinite variety, but also our place within them. Change, eventually, is inevitable, but we can let the planet take its own time, as we allow the shifting sands of geological time to lead us gently into the worlds of tomorrow. Sacrifice, an act of permanence. Then, we too will live in hope.” I'm not sure whether this outlook offers much comfort, but the way Halliday looks at the past to offer benchmarks for the future (and hence also the present) is inspiring, to say the least!