On the Edge
The State and Fate of the World's Tropical Rainforests
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
In 1972, The Limits to Growth introduced the idea that world resources are limited. Soon after, people became aware of the threats to the world’s rainforests, the biggest terrestrial repositories of biodiversity and essential regulators of global air and water cycles. Since that time, new research and technological advances have greatly increased our knowledge of how rainforests are being affected by changing patterns of resource use. Increasing concern about climate change has made it more important than ever to understand the state of the world’s tropical forests.
This book provides an up-to-date picture of the health of the world’s tropical forests. Claude Martin, an eminent scientist and conservationist, integrates information from remote imaging, ecology, and economics to explain deforestation and forest health throughout the world. He explains how urbanization, an increasingly global economy, and a worldwide demand for biofuels put new pressure on rainforest land. He examines the policies and market forces that have successfully preserved forests in some areas and discusses the economic benefits of protected areas. Using evidence from ice core records and past forest cover patterns, he predicts the most likely effects of climate change.
Claude Martin brings his wealth of experience as an ecologist, director of the WWF, and advistor to various conservation organizations to bear on the latest research from around the world. Contributions from eight leading experts provide additional insight.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this report prepared for the Club of Rome, a think tank that analyzes major world problems, Martin aims to combat rainforest fatigue" brought on by decades of conservation advocacy and the ascendance of climate change as a global concern. In nine chapters, he synthesizes decades of scientific literature on the state of the world's rainforests and assesses conservation efforts. With input from specialists, Martin also covers issues such as forest monitoring trends, causes of deforestation, and biodiversity. During much of the 20th century, the rainforests fell prey to the resource-hungry, global economic paradigm of infinite growth. Since the 1970s, conservation efforts have yielded impressive results, but the assault on the rainforests, largely fueled by palm oil expansion and the need for livestock pastures, continues. Martin calls for further action via comprehensive forest conservation concepts that build on ecosystem persistence and resilience." His book is an impassioned argument backed by scientific data that is geared toward an educated general readership. Anyone interested in the fate of the rainforests and the world should check it out.
