By: Seavoy, Ronald E.
ISBN: 978-0-88839-691-4
Binding: Trade Paper
Size: 8.5" X 5.5"
Pages: 152
Photos: 0
Illustrations: 3
Publication Date: 2010

PR Highlights: Evolution from the origin of life to the present and evidence that humans are likely next in line to become extinct. This book examines humans as another animal in the biosphere that is temporarily at the top of the food chain. Like other biosphere animals, humans are subject to the same stresses of nature that have caused the extinction of billions of species from the appearance of life to the present.

Sample Chapter

Table of Contents

Description:  It also looks at Creationism and challenges the Genesis myth and Intelligent Design. The geologic record is clear: larger and more complex organisms are the first animals to become extinct during stressful events in the biosphere. There is nothing inevitable about humans evolving on earth or humans surviving to the end of the solar system. Like other biosphere animals, humans are subject to the same stresses of nature that have caused the extinction of billions of species from the appearance of life to the present. This book is a short study of evolution from the origin of life to the present and examines humans as another animal in the biosphere that is temporarily at the top of the food chain. The first three chapters of this book are short accounts of the geologic and biologic sciences that document the origin of life, the unpredictability of subsequent evolution, the evolution of animals from their first visibility in the Cambrian era, 550 million years ago, and the superpredation of humans that has propelled them to the top of the food chain. The final three chapters are critical looks at the origins of American fundamentalism, intelligent design and human extinction. Additionally, there is a comprehensive bibliography and a table that lists the eras of geologic time.

Ronald E. Seavoy is the author of eight books including A New Exploration of the Canadian Arctic published by Hancock House in 2002. He is professor emeritus of history at Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio. Previous books by the author are Origins of the American Business Corporation (Greenwood, 1982); Famine in Peasant Societies, (Greenwood, 1986); Famine in East Africa: Food Production and Food Policies, (Greenwood, 1989); The American Peasantry: Southern Agricultural Labor and Its Legacy, 1850-1995 (Greenwood, 1998); Subsistence and Economic Development, (Praeger, 2000); A New Exploration of the Canadian Arctic, (Hancock House, 2002); Origins and Growth of the Global Economy From the Fifteenth Century Onward, (Praeger, 2003); An Economic History of the United States: From 1607 to the Present, (Routledge, 2006).