How much do we really know about the species that make up the natural world? In this fascinating book Ken Thompson explains what we do & dont understand about biodiversity. We know that most species remain undiscovered & that biodiversity is gravely threatened
- by overfishing habitat loss pollution & climate change. Life on Earth has previously experienced five episodes of mass extinction & we are now in the middle of a sixth. Do We Need Pandas? surveys the Earths biodiversity its origins & some of the threats it currently faces. It then asks how biodiversity loss will affect the human race. Will we even notice & if we do what will we notice? It asks what we should be doing to secure the survival not only of the species with which we share the planet but of ourselves
- & whether we need to be more concerned about ecosystems as a whole than about iconic species.