Michael Meacher MP

Very few people will have heard of Pavan Sukhdev or of the book he’s written and just published with the rather off-putting title ‘The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity’, published by the UN.    It’s actually one of the most important books available on the really ultimate issues like the nature of the human race, its role on this planet and its place in the universe.   I would like to say that my recently published book ‘Destination of the Species: the Riddle of Human Existance’, published by 0-books, is another, but that’s for others to judge.   But by any standards Sukhdev’s book is sensational.

His theme Saving species should be ‘more powerful than climate change’ has enormous implications for the post-neoliberal world economy.   It is a systematic expose’ of how the human race is bringing about the sixth mass extinction of life on Earth, all the previous convulsions having been caused by natural forces and only this one being driven by living beings themselves.   Biodiversity (the range of all living creatures on this planet) is being currently destroyed between 100 and 1,000 times faster than the usual rate of extinction in all previous history.   Does it matter? (more…)