Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 24, 1994 TAG: 9407170066
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by LARRY SHIELD
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
GILA. Gregory McNamee. Orion Books. $24.
Here are two science volumes with a definite politically correct outlook. The subject matter - the intrusion of Western European values into unsullied ecosystems - continues a disturbing trend in science which appears to ignore the simple truth that man is part of the evolving environment and not a random destroyer of all things wise and wonderful.
Peter Ward's effort in "The End of Evolution" at least makes an attempt to place man's influence on the environment in some historical perspective. Ward describes two previous evolutionary disasters when nature conspired to remove between 50 and 90 percent of the animal species from the earth. The first evolutionary catastrophe occurred 250 million years ago when large volumes of the earth's water disappeared creating vast deserts where once lush plant and animal life resided. This event effectively removed 90 percent of the existing life forms. The second event was the probable collision between the earth and an asteroid 65 million years ago wiping out 50 percent of the species, most notably dinosaurs.
Ward's premise is that man is now responsible for a third catastrophe just beginning in which species are being removed by alterations in climatic conditions and overpopulation. Had man been around to chronicle the other great upheavals, I'm sure similar arguments would have been offered, but then look what has evolved after each of those events. Why wouldn't the sequela of the third event be just as rich and diverse?
In "Gila," Gregory McNamee is a bit less scientific and more bigoted. The book describes the history and natural history of the Gila River located in New Mexico and Arizona. Several fascinating pictures of indigenous Indian (whoops, Native American) societies are created through expository passages and transcriptions of chants and oral histories.
But when phrases like "ecological imperialism" rear up to describe the introduction of goats by the Spaniards, the view of the author that Western European man is the culprit in all thing evil becomes evident. A passage in Chapter One defines the entire book, "In scarcely a hundred years, a rapacious industrial civilization betrayed that eons-long promise of a bit of heaven on earth. And as with all our terrestrial paradises, Eden is now lost."
Rousseau's image of the noble savage has been debunked for years, but revisionist writers keep trying to resurrect it. Life was not all that good then, and life in not all that bad now.
- Larry Shield trains dogs and horses in Franklin County.
by CNB