Dancing at the Dead Sea: Tracking the World's Environmental Hotspots.

DANCING AT THE DEAD SEA: Tracking the World's Environmental HotSpots ALANNA MITCHELL 

During Earth's 450-billion-year history, there have been five major extinctions. In this tale, journalist Mitchell explores the notion of a sixth extinction, occurring right now at the hands of human beings. Natural selection and extinction, instead of occurring over millions of years, is now occurring 1,000 to 10,000 as fast as it has in the past, she writes. The evidence for this lies in the rapid rate of environmental decline worldwide. In an emotional narrative, Mitchell takes the reader along as she travels to some of the Earth's most beleaguered areas, including the nearly deforested lands of Madagascar and the declining deserts of Jordan, where the few plant and animal species there struggle to survive and disappearing natural resources threaten the human population. Along the way, she talks with conservationists, researchers, and local people about the plight of the land and the measures being taken to save it. The stakes are nothing less than the continued existence of life on Earth, Mitchell asserts. Univ. of Chicago Press, 2005, 239 p., hardcover, $25.00.