This book ... looks at the prospect for all species on earth, 5-10 million of them. It proposes that ... [the world] stand[s] to lose at least 1 million by the end of the century, and several more million within ... a few decades ... a single species [man] now dominates all others ... this unique situation implies a ... responsibility for man to consider what he is doing to his fellow creatures, and to himself ... under man's impact, natural environments...

Never before have questions about our relationship with the environment loomed so large in human affairs. Is the world at an historical threshold, where we risk dooming ourselves and our planet if we don't change the way we exploit the Earth's resources? Or are environmentalists being alarmists, underestimating nature's resilience and humanity's adaptiveness? Is species extinction something we really need to worry about? Can we find new supplies or...