A Book from The Green Economics Institute

 

Biodiversity Loss: The Threat to Life on Earth

 

Contents

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: The Importance of Biodiversity for Human Health

Part 3: Soil and Biodiversity

Part 4: Humans – destroyers, stewards or participants?

Part 5: Ethics of Biodiversity

Part 6: Ecosystem services debate- intrinsic or use value

Part 7: Technological Progress Debate

Part 8: Case Study Madagascar

 

Book Overview: 8 parts. No. of pages 285 approx.

ISBN: 9781907543227

Editors : Anna Wainer, Odeta Grabauskaitė and Miriam Kennet

 

Contributing authors: Andrea Alatorre Troncoso (Mexican Conservationist), Dr Michael Benfield founder of the Green Movement (UK), Dr Susan Canney, Leading Conservation Biologist and Zoologist, (University of Oxford UK),Thomas Hopkins, Biologist, (UK), Jane Marlen von Rabenau, ( Leader of LSE Student Union Terra Society),Chrysostomos Meli, Neurology and Genetics (Cyprus Institute of Biology), Sarah Morris, Biologist specialising in algae at species level, (UK and France), Mark Prichard Bee Keeper and educator, Kym Prichard Bee Keeper and Molecular Biologist, Tracy Marchioness of Worcester, (UK), is a campaigner for the greening of food, farming, agriculture and cruelty free farming that opposes agribusiness. She is a patron of International Society and Culture, a trustee of the GAIA Foundation, The Schumacher Society and the UK Soil Association, Anna Fry University of Oxford, epidemiologist,(UK) Ralph Wainer (Uk and Hong Kong), Cecylia Watrobaska Specialist Biologist in amphibians especially newts, Laszlo Zslonai,(Hungary), Ethan Staats is interested in the life overlooked especially the mushroom tongued Salamander (USA),Pauline Obale is a biologist (Imperial College, Uk), Robert Ngiam (Singapore) specialist in dragon flies and is one of the discoverers of Rebecca's Sprites DramselFly, Dr Zoja Milanovic is a Medic specialising in Human Sciences an expedition medicine (Uk Imperial College), Bianca Madison-Vuleta(UK),Dr Wiebina Hesterman (UK and the Netherlands),Dr Hans Guenter-Wagner Ancient Philosophy and Business (Germany and China), Professor Thomas Duncanson Philosopher (Australia).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo Launching the book with contributing author Cecylia Watrobska, a specialist in amphibians, at the prestigious Norrington Room at the University of Oxford. (2015).

 

We depend utterly for our well being and for our economy on biodiversity and nature. However very few people are aware of this fact. Without it we would have nothing to eat and very little to wear. Costs of the current biodiversity loss exceed even those of climate change by an estimated 7 fold (TEEB). Therefore it is essential we start to get a grip on the issues and act now before the costs begin to escalate. Many scientists claim that we are on the brink of the world’s 6th mass extinction. This unique episode is predicted to unfold over the next three centuries. This is a unique event, because instead of mass extinction through huge tectonic shifts in the planet’s continental plates or asteroid crashes, extinction is occurring due to anthropogenic activity. National Geographic,(2015) predicts that rising temperatures and carbon dioxide emissions could send more than a million of the planet’s land-dwelling plants and animals to extinction by 2050. Although most people have an opinion on biodiversity and its conservation, there is a great lack of understanding of this interdisciplinary subject. We depend utterly for our well being and for our economy on biodiversity and nature. However very few people are aware of this fact. Without it we would have nothing to eat and very little to wear. Costs of the current biodiversity loss exceed even those of climate change by an estimated 7 fold (TEEB).

 

Biodiversity Loss, The Variety of Life Under Threat is a book aimed at educating readers about all aspects of biodiversity. The multiple facades of biodiversity science are portrayed in the book: from the medicinal uses of plants and the provision of ecosystem services, through to philosophical debates about human responsibility for nature and controversies of genetic modification. This book takes a holistic approach to the understanding of biodiversity though the examination of this subject, not solely from a scientific point of view, but also from a social, economic and an ethical stand point.

 

Editors' Biographies:

 

Anna Wainer is a specialist in Biology and Environmental Technology who trained at Imperial College London She focussed on Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity Conservation as her main subjects. Her work ‘The Role of Market-Based Instruments in tackling Global Environmental Problems, allowed her to look beyond her science background into the fields of economics and environmental policy. Anna has always had a fascination for biology, particularly marine biology and genetics, and has undertaken underwater research in Central America and Southeast Africa. Her marine research has mainly focussed on population dynamics of benthic species and the state of coral reefs in developing countries. Prior to these experiences, she took a tropical biology course at the Makerere University Biological Field Station in Uganda. She has also undertaken field research into water quality and the state of biodiversity in the tropical forest of Cusuco National Park, Honduras. Anna works as a Researcher for Imperial’s Centre of Environmental Policy doing risk analysis for mosquito vector management.

 

Miriam Kennet is CEO, director and co-founder of the Green Economics Institute and the founder and editor of the International Journal of Green Economics. She is a member of Mansfield College, Oxford University and the Environmental Change Institute, Oxford University. She is a UK government recommendation for the IPCC and has her own delegation to the Kyoto Climate Protocol Conferences and to the RIO +20 Conference. She was named as one of the 100 most powerful unseen women making change globally at a ceremony in London and is the founder and Director of The Green Economics Institute and the International Journal of Green Economics and in 2014 received the Honour Award for Green Business, from the Ministry of Trade in Luxembourg. She ran a conference on Biodiversity held at Trinity College, University of Oxford in 2014 and also several training sessions on Green Economics and Biodiversity over the last 10 years.

Odeta Grabauskaitė of Vytautas Magnus University (VMU)(Lithuania) is a member of the Vytautas Magnus University Senate and a member of the Political Science and Diplomacy Faculty Council. She also studied in Turkey, in Gazi university. She is a Director of the Green Economics Institute. She edited ‘Policy and Practice in Eastern Europe’ with Professor Dzintra Atstaja from Latvia and our book “Green Economics in India.”

 

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Available Now! ISBN: 9781907543227