Conservation and the Environment
Book Details

Wild Solutions

How Biodiversity is Money in the Bank

Andrew Beattie and Paul R. Ehrlich

Wild Solutions urges us to protect the biological wealth of our Earth from destructive human activity.

Awards

Winner of the 2001 National Outdoor Book Award in the Nature and Environment Category

Opinion

'Wild Solutions reveals a living planet so rich in astonishing detail it reads like fiction. Yet in its living detail lies our much-needed signpost towards ecological sustainability.' (Tim Flannery, Director of the South Australian Museum
and author of The Future Eaters and Throwim Way Leg)

'A very innovative and wonderfully illustrated book about why biodiversity and ecosystem processes are important to the planet.' (Margaret Lowman, author of Life in the Treetops: Adventures of a Woman in Field Biology)

About this Title

In this fascinating and abundantly illustrated book, two eminent ecologists explain how the millions of species living on Earth -- some microscopic, some obscure, many threatened -- not only help keep us alive but also hold possibilities for previously unimagined products, medicines, and even industries. In an Afterword written especially for this edition, the authors consider the impact of two revolutions now taking place: the increasing rate at which we are discovering new species because of new technology available to us and the accelarating rate at which we are losing biological diversity. Also reviewed and summarized are many "new" wild solutions, such as innocative approaches to the discovery of pharmaceuticals, the "lotus effect", the ever-growing importance of bacteria, molecular biomimetics, ecological restoration, and robotics.

"An easy read, generating a momentum of energy and excitement about the potential of the natural world to solve many of the problems that face us."
E. J. Milner-Gulland, Nature

"An engaging book clearly intended to impress upon a lay audience the practical value of biological diversity . . . An outstanding work."
Ecology

Table of Contents

1 Introduction
2 Exploring a Little-Known Planet
3 Basic Survival
4 The Natural Internet
5 Thirst: Ecosystems and the World's Water Supply
6 Garbage Red in Tooth and Claw
7 Natural Enemies are Best Friends
8 Naturally Selected
9 Miners' Canaries and Sentinel Pigs
10 Chemical Engineers
11 Blueprints and Inspiration from the Wild
12 Wild Medicine
13 Savings and Loans

About the Author

Andrew Beattie is director of the Commonwealth Key Centre for Biodiversity and Bioresources and Christine Turnbull is research associate, both at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Paul R. Ehrlich is Bing Professor of Population Studies in the department of biological sciences at Stanford University.

978-0-522-85148-9