Sharon L. Roan, Ozone Crisis: the Fifteen-Year Evolution of a Sudden Global Emergency (Wiley, New York, 1989).

Robin Russell Jones and Tom Wigley, editors, Ozone Depletion: Health and Environmental Consequences (Wiley, New York, 1989).

Steven H. Schneider, Global Warming: Are We Entering the Greenhouse Century? second edition (Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1990).

Michael E. Soule, editor, Conservation Biology: the Science of Scarcity and Diversity (Sinauer, Sunderland, Massachusetts, 1986).

John Terborgh, Where Have All the Birds Gone? (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1990). E.O. Wilson, Biophilia (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1984); editor, Biodiversity (National Academy Press, Washington DC, 1988).

Finally, readers interested enough to want to pursue further readings may also want suggestions about what to do to reduce the risk that our children's generation will become extinct. As I explain in the text, the average citizen can do a good deal, both by being active politically and by giving even modest amounts of money to conservation organizations. Here are the names and addresses of a few of the best-known and largest such organizations, among the many that are worthy of support:

World Wide Fund for Nature, Panda House, Weyside Park, Godalming, Surrey, GU7 1XR, UK.

Greenpeace, 30-1 Islington Green, London, Nl 8XE, UK.

International Council for Bird Preservation, 32 Cambridge Road, Girton, Cambridge, CB3 OPJ,

UK.

International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Avenue du Mont-Blanc,

CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland.

Friends of the Earth, 26–28 Underwood Street, London, Nl 7JQ, UK.

Conservation Foundation, Lowther Lodge, 1 Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2AR, UK.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It is a pleasure for me to acknowledge the contributions of many people to this book. My parents and my teachers at Roxbury Latin School taught me how to pursue interests along many lines simultaneously. My debt to my many New Guinean friends will be obvious from the frequency with which I cite their experiences. I owe an equal debt to my many scientist friends and professional colleagues, who patiently explained the subtleties of their subjects and read my drafts. Earlier versions of most of the chapters appeared as articles in Discover magazine and in Natural History magazine. I have been fortunate to have as my editors Leon Jaroff, Fred Golden, Gil Rogin, Paul Hoffman, and Marc Zabludoff at Discover, Alan Ternes and Ellen Goldensohn at Natural History, Thomas Miller at HarperCollins Publishers, Neil Belton at Hutchinson Radius Publishers, and my wife Marie Cohen.

JARED M. DIAMOND

Los Angeles January 1991