Wilson’s The Future of Life, Chapter 1

The title is “To the Ends of the Earth”? What does this title imply?

1) Life extends everywhere. See the four “patterns” on page 10.

2) The chapter will range from one end of the Earth to another to show that life exists everywhere.

How do we know that Wilson is surveying the whole biosphere?

He gives us information from all of the continents: Antarctica (3), North America (7), Europe (9), Asia, Africa, South America (10), and Australia (20).

What is the shape of the chapter?

It moves from hostile environments (cold, heat, radiation, space, darkness) to rainforests, the most prolific areas for life. Assumption: So there is life everywhere. Analogy: Even our bodies are little ecosystems (20).

What are the chapter’s sections/divisions?

1)     Life’s proliferation despite hostile environments and various types of extremes (3).

2)     Patterns within life’s proliferation of 3.6-100 million species (10).

a.      Four patterns (10, par. 2).

b.     Three levels—ecosystems, species, genes (10-11).

c.      Gaia hypothesis—“delicate equilibrium” and interconnectedness/superorganism” (11).The assumptions here are that the Earth is a living being and that all parts of life are connected.

d.     Classification within ecosystem illustrates connectedness—genus, species, family, order, class, phyla, kingdom, domain (13).

3)     Exploration of land, oceans; plants, animals, mammals, birds, vertebrates (14).

Note: The connection between 2.d and critical reading: it is possible to analyze something from large to small or from small to large. WA calls the latter passage-based focused freewriting.

What is Wilson’s point of view?

It is that of a professional biologist and dedicated environmentalist. Moreover, it is a panoramic point of view—he is trying to give us an overview of the whole biosphere. In other words, this chapter provides information that serves as a context for the following chapter. The point is that the conclusions that he reaches in this book are relevant everywhere on the planet.

What are the most important concepts?

Tier one: biosphere (3), ecosystem (10-11), superorganism (11), domains (13).

Tier two: extremophiles (4), panspermia (7), other classifications (13), biological species concept (19).

Note: Wilson uses concepts to structure the chapter—proliferation, patterns, exploration.

What are the chapter’s question at issue and purpose?

Q @ I: What are the characteristics of the biosphere?

Wilson’s purpose in chapter 1 is to sketch what is at stake.

What conclusions arise?

1) “The global environmental crisis gives urgency to the full and exact mapping of all biological diversity” (15).

2) It is tragic that we are losing parts of “the biospheric membrane.”

How would you summarize chapter 1?

Chapter 1 says, “So here’s the biosphere. We’re in danger of losing species we don’t even know exist, along with lots we do know about.” Wilson’s informational strategy sets the stage for chapter 2 by showing what the bottleneck is costing us. We now know what is at risk. In other words, the consequence of environmental degradation is the loss of species within the fragile membrane called the biosphere.

What we know so far, from our reading of the letter to Henry, is that human beings consider their own needs over environmental preservation. The consequence is the bottleneck that is Wilson’s subject in chapter 2.

Evaluation: A standards check—sufficiency?

At this point, however, Wilson’s conclusions are also assumptions; therefore, though accurate and precise, Wilson’s claims are not yet sufficient. The astute reader might say, “What crisis? He hasn’t shown that we ARE losing parts of the biosphere. Why is this supposed loss necessarily tragic? I mean, who needs a bunch of species that have so far remained beneath our notice? So what?” Subsequent chapters will answer these questions more sufficiently.