'Nature's Edge' challenges complacency, alarmism about saving environment

The set of essays suggests that though the problem is global, humans must look for local experiences and solutions

A few decades ago a short film, whose title or origin I can no longer recollect, described how the earth would look to a distant observer from another planet. The film begins by zooming down to an aerial view of Los Angeles and then narrating that the earth is inhabited by brightly coloured creatures with round legs who travel down grey pathways and congregate in grey courtyards and feed themselves by putting a pipe into their mouth. At the end, the narrator from outer space says, “The only problem earthlings have is that they are infested by parasites.” And the