Cover Life Counts - Paperback
Paperback
Edition

Life Counts
English Edition
> Order

Preface
by Stewart Brand

Cover Life Counts - Chinese Edition
Chinese Edition

Cover Life Counts - Spanish Edition
Spanish Edition

Cover Life Counts
Science book of
the Year 2000

Awarded a
"Distinctive Merit"
by the
New York Art Directors Club
in 2001

Prize "Reading for
the Environment 2003"
Of Deutsche Umweltstiftung
(German Environment
Foundation)

Did you know that
approximately 106 Billion
human beings have
existed so far on earth
today? That there are
more animals on earth
than stars in our galaxy?

Life Counts

Cataloguing life on earth

(Together with Michael Gleich and Fabian Nicolay)

Berlin Verlag,
Berlin 2000
ISBN 3-8270-0350-4
288 pages
22 Euro

Paperback:
Berlin Taschenbuch Verlag
Berlin 2002
ISBN 344276033X
287 pages
14,90 Euro

Summary

Life Counts is a popular account of the status of global biodiversity at the beginning of the 21st century. The main question is: how does mankind handle the living resources of the earth? How are we going to combine conservation with economic development in the future? Life Counts shows how to progress from destructive exploitation towards an era of sustainable utilization.

Did you know that approximately 106 Billion human beings have existed so far on earth today? That there are more animals on earth than stars in our galaxy? That the global biomass of ants equals that of humans? That there are 500 trees and 50 birds per human currently on earth?

What is the relevance of these figures for mankind? Life Counts proves with many examples that the ecological importance of wild animals and plants is severely underestimated. For example, bees and other insects contribute billions of dollars to the world economy, just through their pollination of fruits and vegetables.

Life Counts presents the balance of biodiversity in a familiar style by means of first class illustrations and clear infographics. The book was written in close cooperation with the WCMC (World Conservation Monitoring Centre), the IUCN (World Conserva-tion Union) and UNEP (United Nations Environment Program). A team of scientists from the WCMC produced a large part of the data which was used in Life Counts.

This book was awarded the prize: "Science book of the Year 2000" in Germany and a "Distinctive Merit" by the New York Art Directors Club in 2001. It is available in English, Spanish and Chinese and will be published in Polish and Korean soon. The english version has been released by Grove Atlantic, New York.

The World Conservation Union (IUCN) about this book:
http://www.iucn.org/wssd/joburg_programme/
media_events/2908/t29_life_counts.htm