One Cosmic Instant: Man's Fleeting Supremacy

In the words of John Livingston, who is a distinguished naturalist and writer, this book represents "a lifetime's worth of questioning a hitherto immutable attitude and behavior toward the natural world." His questions lead him and the reader back to the very origins of our environment, which will survive only if we learn quickly enough to recognize man's place in the web of life. In clear, uncompromising terms, he speaks out for a revolution in our thinking, for a new perspective on man's relatively brief career as the most powerful force on the planet. Beginning with the "man-apes" of Africa, and through classical and Christian eras to the present, the author traces the roots of man's fancied separation from the natural world that sustains him. This egocentric tradition has led to the extinction not only of animal and plant species and their habitats but also of man's own support systems. His point is that these fallacies are a product of cultural evolution, not of instincts. "There is no 'killer ape,'" he writes, "but there is a 'killer man'... Since aggression is not instinctive, but is learned, we may have hope. Cultures and traditions can change, and they change rapidly." One Cosmic Instant will be a part of that needed change. It is a valuable book for everyone concerned with the ill-balanced relationship between man and the natural world. It provides the groundwork for a new environmental ethic.