How can the one influence the many? From posing seminal questions about what comprises a human
individual to asking whether human evolution is alive and well favoring individuals or the
species this work is a daring up-to-the-minute overview of an urgent multidisciplinary
premise. It explores the extent to which human history provides empirical evidence for the
capacity of an individual to exert meaningful suasion over their species and asks: Can an
individual influence the survival of the human species and the planet? If there are to be
cultures of transformation dedicated to seeing us all through the Sixth Extinction Spasm the
Anthropocene inflicting as little biological havoc as possible what might such orientations-a
collective widespread biophilia or reverence for nature-look like? In this powerful work
with a combination of data and direct observation the authors invite readers to explore how
such transformations might resonate throughout the human community in what ways a person might
overcome the seemingly insurmountable environmental tumult our species has unleashed the clear
and salient motives ethics aspirations and pragmatic idealism he she might mirror and embrace
in order to effect a profound difference-at the individual level-for all of life and life's
myriad habitats. Chapters illuminate an ambitiously broad digest of research from two-dozen
disciplines. Those include ecodynamics biosemiotics neural plasticity anthropology
paleontology and the history of science among others. All converge upon a set of ethics-based
scenarios for mitigating ecological damage to ourselves and other life forms. This highly
readable and tightly woven treatise speaks to scientists students and all those who are
concerned about ethical activism and the future of the biosphere. Michael Charles Tobias and
Jane Gray Morrison are ecological philosophers and animal liberation activists who have worked
for decades to help enrich our understanding of ecosystem dynamics and humanity's ambiguous
presence amid that great orchestra that is nature.
