Presents a wide-ranging exploration of fundamental questions about our relationship with the environment, with insight from key figures in the field such as Wilson, Lovejoy, Raven, Daly, Suzuki, Myers, Erlich, Bean and many others. It explores the accelerated extinction of species and what we stand to lose and how these losses may be felt locally and acutely. Also covered are human population growth, the homogenization of biota as a result in tourism and trade, molecular genetics, satellite data, tools borrowed from medicine, and other scientific techniques that improve our grasp of important processes in biology and earth science, and other factors, including the social influences of law, religious belief, and public education.