Comments on: Book review – A Natural History of the Future: What the Laws of Biology Tell Us About the Destiny of the Human Species/2022/08/22/book-review-a-natural-history-of-the-future-what-the-laws-of-biology-tell-us-about-the-destiny-of-the-human-species/Reviewing fascinating science books since 2017Fri, 07 Feb 2025 12:32:46 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.com/By: inquisitivebiologist/2022/08/22/book-review-a-natural-history-of-the-future-what-the-laws-of-biology-tell-us-about-the-destiny-of-the-human-species/comment-page-1/#comment-51381Tue, 30 Aug 2022 08:25:52 +0000/?p=17607#comment-51381In reply to Connie Barlow.

Thanks Connie!

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]]>By: Connie Barlow/2022/08/22/book-review-a-natural-history-of-the-future-what-the-laws-of-biology-tell-us-about-the-destiny-of-the-human-species/comment-page-1/#comment-51375Tue, 30 Aug 2022 01:21:59 +0000/?p=17607#comment-51375You may not have an academic post, but by golly you know the breadth of the ecological and evolutionary sciences Thank you for pointing out the crucial concepts missing from this book. I will now paste in a brilliant para of yours so other readers may notice your gift: “Fascinating as Dunn’s examples are, some notable laws and principles are missing. What about our lack of awareness of deep time or the (originally) fisheries science concept of shifting baseline syndrome? Arguably, both of these can be folded into the law of anthropocentrism, showing yet other facets of our ignorance of nature. Other prominent candidates are trophic cascades (a good example of the law of escape) and growth, growth trajectories, and the concept of carrying capacity (i.e. the limits to growth). Of course, there is only so much space in a book, so I do not consider this a big deal. A potentially more serious omission is that Dunn does not connect the ideas presented here to the sense, and more often nonsense, of current climate change policy and practice such as the sustainable development goals, net zero, green growth, or the push for renewable energy. The voices of ecologists are sorely missing in these discussions so this would have been an outstanding opportunity to apply his insights and explain what we are getting right and what wrong.”

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