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The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee. Evolution and Human LifeHowever this theory's critics are at least as numerous as its backers; Chapter Eighteen 'will try to make sense of the debate. The concluding chapter will seek to put approximate numbers on the count of species that we have already driven into extinction. We shall start with the firmest numbers: the species whose extinctions occurred in modern times and were well documented, and for which the search for survivors has been so thorough as to leave no doubt that there are no survivors. Next come estimates of three less certain numbers: the modern species that have not been seen alive for some time and that became extinct before anyone was aware of it; the modern species that have not even been 'discovered' and received a name; and the species that humans exterminated before the rise of modern science. That background will let us appraise the main mechanisms by which we exterminate, and the number of species that we are likely to exterminate within my sons' lifetime—if we proceed at our current rate. SEVENTEEN THE GOLDEN AGE THAT NEVER WAS We cling to belief in a Rousseau-esque fantasy that the past was a Golden Age of environmentalism, when people lived in harmony with Nature ...» |
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