A Natural History of the Future by Rob Dunn

A Natural History of the Future by Rob Dunn

"An arresting vision of this relentless natural world" (New York Times) by a leading ecologist, who urges us to heed nature's iron laws 

Our species has amassed unprecedented knowledge of nature, which we have tried to use to seize control of life and bend the planet to our will. In  A Natural History of the Future, biologist Rob Dunn argues that such efforts are futile. We may see ourselves as life's overlords, but we are instead at its mercy. In the evolution of antibiotic resistance, the power of natural selection to create biodiversity, and even the surprising life of the London Underground, Dunn finds laws of life that no human activity can annul. When we create artificial islands of crops, dump toxic waste, or build communities, we provide new materials for old laws to shape. Life's future flourishing is not in question. Ours is. 

As ambitious as Edward O. Wilson's Sociobiology and as timely as Elizabeth Kolbert's The Sixth Extinction, A Natural History of the Future sets a new standard for understanding the diversity and destiny of life itself. 

Rob Dunn is a professor at North Carolina State University's Department of Applied Ecology and the Natural History Museum of Denmark at the University of Copenhagen. His books include The Man Who Touched His Own Heart, The Wild Life of Our Bodies, and Every Living Thing, and his magazine work has appeared in National Geographic, Natural History, New Scientist, Scientific American, and Smithsonian, among others. He is a Fulbright scholar and holds a PhD from the University of Connecticut. He is a Raleigh, North Carolina resident.