Includes bibliographical references (pages 91-97).

1. The extinction crisis is over -- 2. Weedy species, relics, and ghosts -- 3. The case of the tiger salamander -- 4. How we transform nature into a product of our imagination -- 5. Why doing nothing would be worse -- 6. Our moral obligation -- 7. We have lost the wild for now. "Marshaling evidence from the last ten years of research, Stephen M. Meyer argues that nothing - not national or international laws, global bioreserves, local sustainability schemes, or 'wildlands'--Will change the course we have set: the loss of half of the earth's species by the end of the century. We will come to share the planet only with species that thrive in human-dominated environments." "Although we have lost the race to save biodiversity, Meyer argues, we still must act. Without intervention, the ecosystems we depend on for a range of services - including water purification and storm damage control - could fail, and the global spread of pests and disease carriers could explode. If humanity is to survive, we must give up both the idea that we can restore wilderness and the haphazard strategy of protecting species-specific habitats. Instead, our conservation efforts should begin to focus on transregional 'meta-reserves,' designed primarily to protect the crucial functions of ecosystems."--Cover.