cover image Life of Earth: Portrait of a Beautiful, Middle-Aged, Stressed Out World

Life of Earth: Portrait of a Beautiful, Middle-Aged, Stressed Out World

Stanley A. Rice. Prometheus, $28 (252p) ISBN 978-1-61614-225-4

Rice (Green Planet: How Plants Keep the Earth Alive) provides a fascinating update on evolution. He integrates new research with standard Biology-class content in a condensed and tight narrative that suffers occasionally from illogical shifts in his expectations of the audience's knowledge. Yet, for half its length, this is a focused, entertaining delivery of complicated information. But in the second part of the book, Rice nose-dives into a steep exploration of theology that detracts from his previous brilliance. Religion, he writes, "has literally inspired humans to do things that have transformed and degraded the planet - more so than perhaps any other force or adaptation." The book continues to admonish readers, then slides into U.S. politics: "They [Republicans] appear willing to place the survival of human civilization on the altar of this goddess [Gaia]...they condemn liberal earth-goddess environmentalism, while at the same time acting as if they believe in it." Rice and the book work best when teaching, not preaching. (Nov.)