Life in the balance Book

A basic yet well written introduction to ecologicial processes including descriptive overviews of the branches of life, and the different ecosystems on Earth. As the book was written pre 21st C, the sense of urgency is somewhat missing since the overarching impact of climate change on biodiversity and human ecology was not as apparent then. The latter portion dealing with threats to biodiversity and methods to achieve sustainability are less enjoyable suffering from a sense of datedness. Conversely, it can be lauded for being one of the early warnings of a global ecosystem stressed beyond carrying capacity, as only ecologists could see the big picture at the time.