Noah's Choice: True Stories of Extinction and Survival

Ron Goldsmith is a professor of Geography at the Ryerson Polytechnical
Institute.

Noah’s Choice addresses one of today’s most critical ecological
themes: the increasing rate of human-induced extinctions of wildlife
species. Day has entered this territory before, most notably in The Eco
Wars and The Doomsday Book of Animals; this addition to his lengthy list
of ecology-related books shares their combination of thorough research
and readability.

The first nine chapters describe the circumstances surrounding the
extinction of 18 animal species. These include well-known examples, such
as the dodo and the passenger pigeon, but also many less-famous victims.
The culprit is predictably, or perhaps inevitably, humankind,
which—through misadventure, greed, ignorance, and occasionally sheer
brutality—has contributed so greatly to many species’ demise. Day
generally avoids the embittered and gruesome rhetoric that often
characterizes such discussions.

Nine further chapters describe instances in which species have narrowly
escaped extinction. Homo sapiens once again takes centre stage,
facilitating the survival of these species through constructive
intervention, eleventh-hour reversals of destructive behavior, or blind
luck. These chapters add a perspective frequently missing from works of
this sort: a recognition that success is achievable, given sufficient
commitment and common sense.

This book offers no important conceptual or analytical breakthroughs,
and presents relatively little information that is not available
elsewhere. In these respects, it falls well short of Day’s earlier
books. However, its simplicity and readability are important advantages.
It is an admirable resource for those wishing to learn about this
critical issue without learning all the technical language, and it will
undoubtedly be well used as background for a multitude of student
essays.