Several times in the distant past, catastrophic extinctions have
swept the Earth, causing more than half of all species -- from
single-celled organisms to awe-inspiring behemoths -- to suddenly
vanish and be replaced by new life forms. Today the rich diversity
of life on the Earth is again in grave danger -- and the cause is
not a sudden cataclysmic event but rather humankind's devastation
of the environment. Is life on our planet teetering on the brink of
another mass extinction? In this absorbing new book, acclaimed
paleontologist Peter D. Ward answers this daunting question with a
resounding yes.
Elaborating on and updating Ward's previous work, "The End of
Evolution," "Rivers in Time" delves into his newest discoveries.
The book presents the gripping tale of the author's investigations
into the history of life and death on Earth through a series of
expeditions that have brought him ever closer to the truth about
mass extinctions, past and future. First describing the three
previous mass extinctions -- those marking the transition from the
Permian to the Triassic periods 245 million years ago, the Triassic
to the Jurassic 200 million years ago, and the Cretaceous to the
Tertiary 65 million years ago -- Ward assesses the present
devastation in which countless species are coming to the end of
their evolution at the hand of that wandering, potentially
destructive force called "Homo sapiens."
The book takes readers to the Philippine Sea, now eerily empty
of life, where only a few decades of catching fish by using
dynamite have resulted in eviscerated coral reefs -- and a dramatic
reduction in the marine life the region can support. Ward travels
to Canada's Queen Charlotte Islands to investigate the extinctions
that mark the boundary between the Triassic and Jurassic periods.
He ventures also into the Karoo desert of southern Africa, where
some of Earth's earliest land life emerged from the water and stood
poised to develop into mammal form, only to be obliterated during
the Permian/Triassic extinction.
"Rivers of Time" provides reason to marvel and mourn, to fear
and hope, as it bears stark witness to the urgency of the Earth's
present predicament: Ward offers powerful proof that if radical
measures are not taken to protect the biodiversity of this planet,
much of life as we know it may not survive.
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