42 pages • 1 hour read
Edward O. WilsonHalf-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Prologue-Part 1, Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “The Problem”
Prologue Summary
Wilson opens the book by discussing the nature of humans, a discussion he returns to throughout the book. Humans are the product of millions of years of both biological and cultural evolution. We are “magnificent in imaginative power and exploratory drive, yet yearning to be more master than steward of a declining planet” (1). The planet is facing several serious issues, most of which are due to human activity, including a too large and growing human population, a declining supply of fresh water, polluted seas and atmosphere, and climate change. These issues have already caused extinctions of species and radically transformed Earth. Due to the global nature of these issues, humans are reaching “a point of no return” (2) at which we will not be able to reverse the planetary threat of mass extinction.
Wilson also outlines the main proposal of Half-Earth, which forms a trilogy with Wilson’s previous books The Social Conquest of Earth and The Meaning of Human Existence to argue that humans have become “the architects and rulers of the Anthropocene epoch” (2). Current conservation strategies, which focus on the most threatened species and habitats, will not prevent a mass extinction event. Wilson proposes the following goal: Preserve at least half of Earth’s surface (land and water) to save its biodiversity. Scientific calculations based on current biodiversity within ecosystems around the world indicate “that more than 80 percent of the species would be stabilized” (4).
Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “The World Ends, Twice”
Earth is 4.5 billion years old, and throughout this time frame multiple extinction events have occurred. Extinction events that are “truly apocalyptic,” however, are rare, occurring at 100-million-year intervals. We have geological records of five such events, the most recent having occurred 65 million years ago, during the Mesozoic Era (also known as the Age of Reptiles), when an asteroid crashed into the present-day Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. This event, known as the Chicxulub Impact Event, caused the extinction of 70% of all species, including dinosaurs. It took Earth 10 million years to recover.
Wilson then turns to the Sixth Extinction, which “humanity has initiated” (8), during the Holocene. The Holocene is an epoch, or geological subdivision, of the Cenozoic Era (also known as the Age of Mammals), which came after the Mesozoic Era. The Holocene began around 12,000 years ago and included the retreat of continental glaciers, milder climates, and the presence of humans on almost all major continents. From the beginning of the Holocene, humans altered the planet, but this process has ramped up over the last few decades. Wilson notes that “Earth is already different enough to recognize the end of the Holocene and replace it with a new geological epoch” (9) known as the Anthropocene, or the Epoch of Man. During the Anthropocene, humans have altered the three major levels that organize life: ecosystems, species, and genes. Ecosystems are the geographic area in which organisms interact with one another. Species are groups of organisms that share similar traits and can interbreed with one another. Genes are units of hereditary information that prescribe traits to species.
Prologue-Chapter 1 Analysis
The Prologue and first chapter of Half-Earth, taken together, provide an important overview for Wilson’s argument. The Prologue provides the backstory: Half-Earth is the final book in a trilogy. This trilogy has explored various aspects of the evolutionary trajectory of humans, culminating in an examination of how our domination of nature will have far-reaching consequences for humans and all of life on Earth. Although Wilson grounds his argument in scientific research, at the heart of the book is his belief that we should value this planet and all species that call it home. In aiming to persuade his audience of this point, Wilson hopes that people’s moral reasoning will shift towards a willingness to designate half of the planet to nature to save its biodiversity and humanity’s future.
Wilson’s goal in the first part of the book is to orient readers to the problem at hand. This means providing his audience with the geological, biological, and cultural context they need to understand the problem of the Sixth Extinction. To that end, Chapter 1 outlines why the Sixth Extinction is so serious and worthy of immediate action. Simply put, humans, in a flash of geological time, are altering the climate and habitats in such a way that would usually take millions of years. Only five other geologically recorded extinction events have been identified in Earth’s history, and the most recent one took the planet 10 million years to recover from. To put this into perspective, the human lineage has only been around for 2.5 million years or so.
Wilson’s sense of urgency that humans must act now to save the biosphere is apparent from the opening pages. He notes that “for the first time in history a conviction has developed among those who can actually think more than a decade ahead that we are playing a global endgame” (1). The current conservation movement, which focuses on the most endangered species and habitats, is not working fast enough. The magnitude of the problem requires a new approach. While setting aside half of the planet for nature reserves might sound like a pipe dream, Wilson urges his audience to see the proposal as an “emergency solution commensurate with the magnitude of the problem” (3).
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