Elements of Critical Thinking I
The point of view from which Edward O. Wilson analyzes how humanity affects the natural world (pg. 90)
What is a biologist?
The alternative point of view Wilson briefly discusses (pg. 90)
What is not a biologist?
The three ways Wilson has seen the conservation ethic expressed (pg. 102)
What are taboo, totemism, and science?
The name Wilson gave the extinction classification in which one hundred or fewer individuals of a species survive
What is the "Hundred Heartbeat Club" (89)?
The role Wilson assigns humanity (pg. 102)
What is the "planetary killer"?
The focus of the majority of the information that Wilson provides
What is the extinction of various species of flora and fauna?
The overarching conclusion of the chapter
What is that humanity is headed toward its own extinction and the decimation of the planet if it leaves its relationship with other organisms unaltered and continues on the current course?
The strand in the background of the entire chapter (heavily present on pg. 80)
What is time / passage of time?
The name of an extinction classification in which a single individual of a species survives
What is the "living dead" (89)?
Human choice
The purpose of chapter four
What is demonstrate the deadly nature of humanity’s relationship with the planet’s flora and fauna species?
The most prominent concept of the chapter
What is extinction?
The causes of the decline of the Sumatran rhino in the wild are well understood, but
Wilson's timeline of the extinction of a species (pg. 90)
What is critically endangered -> the living dead -> oblivion?
How humanity wipes out biodiversity (pg. 92)
What is by "eating its way down the food chain"?
Humanity, fueled by the pursuit of their own short-term survival, is the most active driving force of the exponentially increasing rates of extinction in the natural world. The failure to rectify this harmful role could mean the death of the planet.
What are the implications and consequences of Wilson's chapter?
The state of the biosphere, biodiversity, and the efforts to slow the extinction rates of various species in 2001-2002
What is the context of this chapter?
Paradise found
What is "paradise lost" (102)?
Can you elaborate on this statement?
Eden occupied
What is "a slaughterhouse" (102)?
Can you elaborate on this statement?
A mythic conception of people belonging to non-European cultures as having innate natural simplicity and virtue uncorrupted by European civilization (pg. 102)
What is the noble savage?
The question at issue that Wilson explores in this chapter (pg. 92, 102)
What is "What role does humanity play in determining the health of the planet, specifically in the context of the organisms which inhabit it?"
An assumption Wilson bases his exploration of extinction on (pg. 83)
What is the assumption that the extinction of a species is unnatural and human-provoked?
What is the "progression of megadeath has followed the filter principle of conservation biology: the farther back in time the first human-induced wave of extinction struck, the lower the extinction rate today" (96)?
1. The relation between the area of a habitat and the number of species it can support (100)
2. Tracking the descent of species through the Red Lists over a period of years (101)
3. Analyzing the survival probabilities of the species in the different Red List categories (101)
The ecological concept that one could relate to Wilson's discussion on how the human colonization of Australia affected local species of flora and fauna
What is the concept of an evasive species?