The Story of Life and the Environment: An African Perspective by Jo Van As, Johann du Perez, Leslie Brown, Nico Smit

The Story of Life & the Environment – An African Perspective is about the fragile miracle of life on our planet. It’s a celebration of life’s rich and wonderful diversity, and it unpacks the three major ecosystems: fresh water, the ocean and land.

It discusses evolution, how systems work, how populations expand and contract, and how all the elements of life interact. And it tells the story of humans: where we come from, and how we have evolved to become modern people.

The book also sounds a signal warning about our human impact on the planet. We can no longer ignore the realities: our climate is changing and we are depleting the planet’s resources and destroying life at a rate equivalent to a mass extinction event. We have become the first species to threaten the destruction of our own habitat.

It is also about responsible planning and management of our environment and natural resources, of how we should respond to our planet’s distress, and of recent efforts to redress damage and ensure sustainability.