Back to the future in the caves of Kauaʻi : a scientist's adventures in the dark /

Focusing primarily on paleoecology (the study of past environments), Burney (National Tropical Botanical Garden) emphasizes the long-standing adverse impact that humans have had on ecosystems worldwide. He particularly highlights the importance of reconstructing past environments to aid understanding of global ecology and its influence on modern conservation efforts and, especially, to help people become responsible stewards of planet Earth. Hawaii is in ecological crisis; it has more species listed as endangered than any other state and has been described as the endangered species capital of the US. This book offers an interesting narrative of one man's professional and personal journey to uncover something of Hawaii's distant past and find a way to help secure its ecological future. Burney writes in a conversational tone suitable for general interest readers. Some of the author's conclusions are necessarily speculative and, of course, debatable; some material could be organized more cohesively. Nevertheless, Burney brings select conservation issues into specific relief and offers an important message for anyone interested in modern approaches to the long-term preservation of plant and animal biodiversity. Summing Up: Recommended. Public and undergraduate academic libraries. D. A. Brass independent scholar