> Books such as "Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity" are published at a startlingly high rate. Even more frequently published are papers with such titles as "Biodiversity Loss Threatens Human Well-Being". Works such as these are published by the world's most prestigious presses and journals; their authors are among the most distinguished experts in their fields. Moreover, the world's most powerful organizations that identify themselves as "conservation organizations" have made the "save biodiversity" theme their guiding anthem. The World Wildlife Fund, for one, rationalizes actions in terms of "Biodiversity Visions", which identify "priority areas critical to maintaining the biodiversity of the entire ecoregion." Disturbingly, these prevailing views have barely been examined or questioned. 

> Some number of months ago, I began to systematically scrutinize these sources and the many arguments that they present. I was looking for a sound foundation on which to build my own contributions to this effort. With the great size of the literature and the capabilities of its authors, I was at first confident that my only significant problem would be one of selecting and integrating an existing and unassailable edifice of argument. Instead of a solid edifice, I found a chimera. I was stunned that I could not find a single argument that does not have serious logical flaws, crippling qualifications, or indefensible assumptions.

> The question is: How can humans best fit into a world that includes that blur of nonhuman elements, but that is also a world largely and increasingly human-designed, human-developed, and human-managed?

excerpts for review purposes only from 
D.S. Maier, What’s So Good About Biodiversity?: 
A Call for Better Reasoning About Nature’s Value
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012
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