In the limited scope of this book I wish to present a brief review of the progressive destruction of nature, particularly in the domain of animal life, and at the same time to ill- trate some of the possibilities by BIII: - Ion-.--------------, which man can prevent this de- 3 ---------- f_4 struction. As the mightiest creation of na- 2,51-______ a _ ___ L...-_j ture, man extends his influence into all of nature's provinces and in- 2 1--- - -------1---; habits all zones of the earth., 51----------1'------1 Civilization and technology, ulti mate consequences of his unique 1 cerebral development, have pro moted man to this position of O >, I, ., oo-="'------------I power. An enormous population increase in recent centuries has 1850 1100 1700 1800 1BIIO 1800 .110.2000 made him one of the most numer An ous of all animal forms. A com h parison of the alarming climb of 5 earth's population curve (Fig. la) -,"0 with the graphical representation r-- of exterminated animal species 30 r- (Fig. Ib) establishes a striking conformity. The steeper the human 20 r-- population curve climbs, the higher 10- stretch the bars representing the h -r-- number of exterminated animal 1650 1700 17150 1800 18SO 1900 19SO 2000 species.

In this provocative book, Nicholas Daly tracks the cultural effects of the population explosion of the nineteenth century, the 'demographic transition' to the modern world. As the crowded cities of Paris, London and New York went through similar transformations, a set of shared narratives and images of urban life circulated among them, including fantasies of urban catastrophe, crime dramas, and tales of haunted public transport, refracting the hell that is other people. In the visual arts, sentimental genre pictures appeared that condensed the urban masses into a handful of vulnerable figures: newsboys and flower-girls. At the end of the century, proto-ecological stories emerge about the sprawling city as itself a destroyer. This lively study excavates some of the origins of our own international popular culture, from noir visions of the city as a locus of crime, to utopian images of energy and community.

Conservation Biology for All provides cutting-edge but basic conservation science to a global readership. A series of authoritative chapters have been written by the top names in conservation biology with the principal aim of disseminating cutting-edge conservation knowledge as widely as possible. Important topics such as balancing conversion and human needs, climate change, conservation planning, designing and analyzing conservation research, ecosystem services, endangered species management, extinctions, fire, habitat loss, and invasive species are covered. Numerous textboxes describing additional relevant material or case studies are also included. The global biodiversity crisis is now unstoppable; what can be saved in the developing world will require an educated constituency in both the developing and developed world. Habitat loss is particularly acute in developing countries, which is of special concern because it tends to be these locations where the greatest species diversity and richest centres of endemism are to be found. Sadly, developing world conservation scientists have found it difficult to access an authoritative textbook, which is particularly ironic since it is these countries where the potential benefits of knowledge application are greatest. There is now an urgent need to educate the next generation of scientists in developing countries, so that they are in a better position to protect their natural resources.