From Naked Ape to Super Species: A Personal Perspective on Humanity and the Global Ecocrisis

by David Suzuki and Holly Dressel

Book Overview

For millennia, we lived in harmony with the Earth, taking only what we required to survive. But in just the past few centuries, we have used our powers to satisfy our obsession with consumption and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0773731946
• ISBN13: 9780773731943
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Stoddart
• Length: 332 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating and compelling

Great book! I am impressed by how thorough and how interesting it is. It is chock full of information but very well written and easy to read. You don't have to be a scientist or stereotypical environmentalist to find this book interesting and compelling. I highly recommend it!

A Timely Perspective On Humanity in the Biosphere

SUZUKI:Although David Suzuki was trained to genetically engineer fruit flies to grow arms from their heads, his perspective on science and life is remarkably human. I would go so far as to say that his understanding of humanity and its place in nature is perhaps unequaled among environmental philosophers today. Aside from working as a scientist, Suzuki also spent some 30-some years producing nature documentaries. This gave him the opportunity travel the globe, visit many different cultures and geographic regions, from indigenous tribes to povrety-striken Third World nations. It was through profound cultural education that Suzuki unlearned the mad science he studied as a youth and gained new understand about culture, economics and biodiversity. Nowadays, Suzuki mainly spends his time writing books and articles. He also runs an environmental organization in Canada, where he and his family live, called the David Suzuki Foundation. The website address is: http://www.davidsuzuki.org/ DESCRIPTION OF THE BOOK:In this book Suzuki teams up with writer and researcher Holly Dressel to produce a sort of global guide to the biosphere-a work of scope and detail that will amaze you. They will walk you through ancient arboreal forests and the global economy with the ease of an experienced mountain tracker. They will be introduced you to people and movements that are sure to move. And perhaps most importantly the book will provide you with an important ecological perspective. Filled with stories, anecdotes, interesting facts, and tons of suggestions and references, from books to organizations - "From Naked Ape to Super-Species" is nothing less than a manual for humanity. Simply put, this is one of the most important books I have read. EXERPT:"Time is the one ingredient that is absolutely for vital for nature. It is the vast sweep of evolutionary time that has allowed life to flourish and huge changes to occur. In the 4 billion years that life has existed, the sun has increased in intensity by 25 percent, magnetic poles have switched and reversed back, continents have smashed into each other and then pulled apart, ice ages and warm periods have come and gone, and the atmosphere has been transformed from a non-oxygen to a oxygen-rich one. Yet life has persisted, simply because of the immense periods of time it has to make adjustments.Today, the rate at which we are extracting trees, fish, topsoil and clean water, as well as creating pollutants and greenhouse gases, may match the speed of information technology and the economy, but it is not in synch with the reproductive rates of natural systems. More and more, our sources of information are no longer connected to the natural world and its limits. Politics, civic action and participatory democracy need time too. Democratic groups like PTAs and other voluntary human institutions take time to do their work. Until we slow down the rate of growth in information and technology and learn to pay atte

One of the best books I've ever read!

This is an eye opener. Sad in so many ways, but so broad in scope covering so much of what we've come to know as our "way of life" that it can't fail to touch, to motivate and mobilise. This is a must read. If only the folk at the WTO, the WB, IMF, WIPO and on would sit down and read a few of these chapters!

Want to know why people vote Green?

Suzuki's previous books are a hard act to follow, but he and Dressel provide an informative and interesting view of the environmental problems we are facing.It factually points out the hypocrisy and short-sightedness of uncontrolled capitalism and globalisation and is full of interesting anecdotes, well-referenced, and makes you think pretty deeply about the developed world's current paragigm of "progress".If you want to read one book about the health of our society and environment this is a very good choice. This book should be mandatory reading worldwide for senior highschool students and all of us who are already past that.

David Susuki and Holly Dressel's message must be heard!

This book will make you open your eyes to what mankind has done and continues to do, to our fragile planet. But what I really enjoyed about this book is the fact that David Susuki believes it's not to late to change our destructive path, and that we can still make changes to save our planet from our global eco-crisis.