A brief comment on "The Future of Life" by E.O. Wilson. It's my streetcar reading so it's taken me about a week to get through. It's worth exploring and environmental issues are very topical as we read about the polution cloud hanging over Asia. I'm afraid it's preaching to the choir, will it change attitudes, I'm not sure. It is, however filled with amazing facts and stories and I'm going to re-read it quickly to make note of many facts that I can use in discussion. One sad story about human nature and shortsightedness is recounted on page 113 where he described the economist Colin W. Clark calculating that the best solution for the then dwindling stocks of blue whale would be to kill and harvest the remaining few hundred and invest the money in "growth stocks". Fortunately this didn't occur, but in these Enron, Imcon, Worldcom days, we must not underestimate the power of greed to justify any action.