Extinction: Evolution and the End of Man

By Michael Boulter

How long have humans left on Earth? Using cutting edge science that revolutionises our understanding of evolution, Michael Boulter explains how we may be closer to our own extinction than we imagined.

Sixty-five million years ago the dinosaurs were destroyed in a mass extinction event that could not have been predicted. Out of the devastation, new life developed and the world regained its natural equilibrium. Until now. Scientists, employing radically new perspectives on the science of life, are beginning to uncover signs of similar event on the horizon. The end of man.
Through the story of the last sixty-five million years, Michael Boulter reveals extraordinary new insights that scientists are only now beginning to understand about the past, the rise and fall of species and the nature of life.
EXTINCTION is an immaculately researched introduction into the new developments in the science of life as well as a chilling account of the effects that humans have had on the planet. The world will adapt and survive -humanity will not.

EXTINCTION raises some radical insights into the our view of the world:
• Nature is in a balance, in which all parts interact and create harmony – this harmony is organised from the inside – it is a self-organising system
• In a self-organising system the whole is more important than its parts.
• One method of this system is extinction – if the system is disrupted it will do what it has to correct itself.

EXTINCTION investigates Man’s impact on the world
• For thousands of years – not just in the last few centuries – man has moulded the environment for its own use. This has created a tipping in the balance of nature.
• Over the last million years and in particular, the last 13,000 years since the last Ice Age, Man has accelerated the extinction of its environment and therefore our own.
• The Earth will survive whatever we do to it – we won’t. We will be followed by the age of the insects.

Format: Hardback
Release Date: 04 Mar 2002
Pages: 224
ISBN: 978-1-84115-695-8
Michael Boutler is the Professor of Palaeobiology at the University of East London. He is the head of a team analysing Fossil Record 2 the largest database of information on extinct animals and plants. He has written numerous articles on how we understand evolutionary change. For twenty years he has been Secretary and Editor for the International Organisation of Palaeobiology. He lives with his family in North London.

'Mike Boulter's book explores new ways of looking at extinctions - extinctions of the geological past and of the present day. He is a pioneer and shows how new methods allow us to understand major crises of the past and how they relate to the current problems. This is a whirlwind of a book.'Michael Benton, Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology, Univeristy of Bristol -