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9781610397278

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With Inheritors of the Earth, Chris D. Thomas issues a challenge to the conventional view of nature in decline. He urges us to embrace the environmental changes we've set in motion, daring to suggest that human activities will ultimately increase the diversity of life on Earth. A timely and provocative read. --Thor Hanson, author of The Triumph of Seeds With a perspective that stretches many epochs into the past and forward to the year One Million A.D., Thomas reframes Earth's current ecological upheaval as a time of great creation as well as great loss. Without minimizing or excusing the damage humans have done to the planet, Inheritors of the Earth opens our eyes to the splendid and fascinating ways nature is adapting and evolving to the world we have made. He urges us to take our cue from the majestic dynamism of nature and work with other species as they change and move, rather than fighting an impossible battle to freeze the planet in time. All change is not bad. I thought I was an optimist. Thomas is the real ecological optimist. --Emma Marris, author of Rambunctious Garden Chris Thomas takes the million-year view of today's human-dominated world. The result is a thoughtful, provocative, and improbably hopeful book. --Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction and Field Notes from a Catastrophe A provocative book that challenges us to look positively at our human changes to the natural world and reimagine conservation in the Anthropocene. --Gaia Vince, author of Adventures in the Anthropocene The most interesting / challenging / surprising thing I've read about the natural world for years. --James Rebanks, author of The Shepherd's Life A decent and humane tale about the threat and promise of biodiversity change. --James Lovelock, author of The Revenge of Gaia and A Rough Guide to the Future [A] thrilling and uplifting counter to the pessimism of the Anthropocene. --Stuart Blackman, BBC Wildlife Magazine Fascinating ... Chris Thomas examines our human relationships with nature, bad and good, and sets out a more hopeful truth to current narratives and alarms ... This is a rich and timely tale, fearless too, with examples and cases drawn from ecosystems across the world. --Professor Jules Pretty, Times Higher Education His flowing narrative is rich in stories of his fieldwork round the world ... Thomas's vision ... aspires to something nobler, more optimistic. --Fred Pearce, New Scientist An immensely significant book. It is fluently written, carefully thought through, ruthlessly argued, neatly illustrated with case studies - and shockingly contrarian. --Matt Ridley, The Times (Book of the Week)

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Chris D. Thomas is a professor of conservation biology at the University of York, UK. A prolific writer, he has published 210 scientific journal articles, twenty-nine book chapters, edited one academic book, and has written around twenty magazine and other popular articles since 2000. His works have been cited more than 26,000 times, making him one of the world's most influential ecologists, and his research has been covered on the front pages of the Guardian and Washington Post. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 2012, is a long-standing fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, and received Marsh Awards for Climate Change Research in 2011 and for Conservation Biology in 2004 and the prestigious British Ecological Society President's Medal in 2001.

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