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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting and absorbing, 30 Jul 2003
By A Customer
The ideas in this book on the future of wildlife in post-human era is credible as the author, Dougal Dixon is a zoologist who keeps to the laws of evolution as he suggests what kind of animals may live in the future. One of the most interesting is the raboon as a possible descendent of the baboon. Taking into the account of apes which ventured onto to grassland around 7 million years becoming biped, the author predicts that the descendents of the baboon will too become biped but there the similarity ends. The ape which became biped stood completely erect whereas a monkey which turns biped, has a tail to consider so it’s gait would resemble more closely to the meat eating dinosaur such as T-rex.The rabbuck, which could evolve or diverge from today’s rabbit is credible too. However, the whole book seems to be on the assumption that the Earth’s climate will remain like it is today, that the Ice Age ended 10,000 years ago whereas the book The Future is Wild, which Dougal Dixon also co-authors suggests that we are in an ‘inter-glacial period’. But After Man was published in 1998 whereas The Future is Wild came out in 2003. Nevertheless, this book is still credible – especially where the author suggests that humans will become extinct because there are limits to how long the Earth can supply materials for industry and fertile soil for agriculture to keep up our lifestyles. Whenever I hear a scientist droning on about the ‘superiority’ of the homo sapien because we are so ‘adaptable’ whereas the Neanderthal was too specialised because he was less advanced, I laugh because that is exactly what we have become – very specialised, sooooo specialised that we can only live the way we are now. If our planet can no longer supply our needs to carry on, we too will die out. I even realised this before I read this book. We may, however, mine on the Moon, Mars and other parts of the Solo System by sending robots – and also colonise other planets in other solo systems but how long will it take before we achieve this technology, if ever? The author suggests that the Earth will be able to supply materials for industry and soil for agriculture for only a few thousand years more into the future. For those who already possess the book The Future is Wild, I would recommend this book as it gives a different aspect to the future but this time 50 million years time and on the assumption that there won’t be much change in the current climate although the geography of the world map is predicted to change i.e. South America becomes an island; Australia joins Asia etc.
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by Dougal Dixon
by Dougal Dixon
![Neverwhere - The Complete BBC Series [1996] [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51aa1Lex-fL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
DVD ~ Gary Bakewell
![The Future Is Wild [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41TRYKBTEXL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
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