Half-Earth
by Edward Osborne Wilson · first published 2016
55% recommend36% neutral9% critical
Why HN recommends it
Argues for setting aside about half the planet as protected natural habitat to preserve biodiversity. It serves as the basis for later 30 by 30 conservation goals and as a framework for thinking about land use.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Half-Earth proposes an achievable plan to save our imperiled biosphere: devote half the surface of the Earth to nature. In order to stave off the mass extinction of species, including our own, we must move swiftly to preserve the biodiversity of our planet, says Edward O. Wilson in his most impassioned book to date. Half-Earth argues that the situation facing us is too large to be solved piecemeal and proposes a solution commensurate with the magnitude of the problem: dedicate fully half the surface of the Earth to nature. If we are to undertake such an ambitious endeavor, we first must unders
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…ultimately the species. There is continued proof all around us that this is the direction we're heading. We have the foresight to recognize this now, but sadly not the motivation to correct it. Read 'Half Earth' by Edward Wilson to see his arguments for setting aside 50% of the surface land as pure wild nature, to preserve biodiveristy and, ultimately, us. I agree with many comments here that many established…
on “Amazon Deforestation, Once Tamed, Comes Roaring Back” ↗None of this works at scale. The problem is that we are past carrying capacity. We need to control population. I am in favour of E.O. Wilson’s Half Earth solution where we set aside half the planet for habitat and inhabit only half of the land and leave the oceans alone.
on “Animal Populations Fell by 68% in 50 Years and It’s Getting Worse” ↗…food for billions cheaply. But all ag and food production should be termed industrial as it is the erasure of nature and habitat and eco systems. I am very much in favour of the late great E.O.Wilson’s Half Earth proposal and I think it should be considered in earnest to save our planet.
on “Healthy soil is key to feeding the world” ↗…fact..everything runs on fossil fuels. Even food is fossil fuel turned into calories. Population at half of today’s level is still above carrying a capacity of earth. I am a big proponent of E.O.Wilson’s Half Earth where half the planet must be returned to nature ti be rewilded and habitat must be restored. This isn’t to say that procreation must be penalized. We need human beings to keeP our species from going…
on “As water crisis worsens on Colorado River, an urgent call for states to ‘act’” ↗…especially as we allow our infants and children to grow up in it, untouched nature will become exponentially more important as (literal!) grounding for humanity. That's why something like E. O. Wilson's Half Earth proposal is so important ( https://www.half-earthproject.org/ ) We only have one biosphere in the entire universe, of course we should try to preserve it intact and in working order! After all we have…
on “Can we protect land for nature and carbon by simply buying it up?” ↗…without changing a single thing about how we fuel our cars, heat and cool our buildings, and run our commerce and lives.[..] Rewilding our planet is our only hope. I am a big supporter of E.O.Wilson’s Half Earth proposal which sets aside half of all land mass to habitat. If we cannot live in the remaining half , it means we are living beyond the carrying capacity of the planet. Why? Because we are a super apex…
on “The Case for the Vertical Farm” ↗Going forward, the best solution is to implement Wilson’s "Half-Earth" biosphere reserve proposal, more popularly known in its current, reduced form as "30 by 30", agreed to by 100 nations (currently) at the COP15 meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity. If more…
on “Defying gravity, 2022 Climate Tech VC funding totals $70.1B, up 89% on 2021” ↗Late to the party, and I dunno if you'll see this, but could it have been E.O. Wilson's Half-Earth? He makes the argument in that book for keeping at least 50% of the land (connected) wild for animal use.
on “Is Artificial Light Poisoning the Planet?” ↗I'm just finishing Half-Earth: Our Planet's Fight for Life a 2016 book in which he proposes that half of the Earth's surface should be designated a human-free natural reserve to preserve biodiversity. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Earth…
on “E.O. Wilson has died” ↗…Latin America to feed the China and the rest of the world. 7. Habitat is the most important thing when it comes to resource allocation and resource conservation and exploitation. I like E.O.Wilson’s Half Earth policy because it’s an elegant and fair solution. 7. You should be concerned about funding public schools because the subsidized cheap frozen fish fingers is what’s causing overfishing elsewhere in the…
on “Sir David Attenborough makes stark warning about species extinction” ↗…areas/acres of unpopulated land and “largely empty” states: there are other, non-human persons living there, and I think that’s grand. We may not agree on this. I’m all for rewilding (see E. O. Wilson’s “half earth” idea and George Monbiot’s book Feral) and letting a lot of land be relatively empty of human settlement (with room for stewards, and tourism). I’m thankful for this life, and I feel the amount of resources…
on “The declining U.S. birthrate has implications beyond Social Security” ↗…industry, not people, as the prime cause of overexploitation. The debate is roughly between those who would set aside and protect part of the Earth and those who see the Earth as already unnatural. Or "Half-Earth" vs. "the Anthropocene", to use each side's slogans. To be sure, some of the side opposed to Wilson have been known to attempt to racialise the views of the set-asiders. For an eloquent defence of Half-Earth…
on “An open letter on E.O. Wilson's legacy” ↗…but no plastic in the oceans. The rest of this is an excerpt from a bit I wrote in 2013, in the context of a "Future History" fictional projection. (I was very encouraged when I saw E. O. Wilson's "Half Earth"!) In the future the surface of the Earth has been divided into two kinds of zones or areas: "Inside" and "Outside". Inside: Artificial, Safe, Immortal There is a single city but it's discontinuous,…
on “Exploring How and Why Trees ‘Talk’ to Each Other” ↗…point that Permaculture et. al. is all about "increasing yield and space/land efficiency", you're right (IMO) that we should be setting aside, say, half the Earth for non-human use. See E.O. Wilson's "Half Earth" proposal. https://www.half-earthproject.org/ My original question is how do you get buy-in on such a goal if only a few scientists care about it? I see the root of the problem as humankind's divorce…
on “Countries are gathering in an effort to stop a biodiversity collapse” ↗What's needed to realize Wilson's vision is an institution that glues allocated land together and networks with other land trusts towards the half-earth goal. The land wouldn't always need to be contiguous, though connecting corridors would be a priority. There's various living park models that could form an unbrella and provide limited use for tourism…
on “Half-Earth” ↗