Pimm (conservation ecology, Duke U.) takes a close look at environmental statistics and finds them frightening. Here, he surveys worldwide data to find that humans are making species extinct 100 times faster than they would without human intervention, and that freshwater supplies are consumed far faster than the earth can replenish them. He finds startling figures from the forests, plains, deserts, and oceans in a world tour of environmental disasters, and finds that the consequences are severe from one end to the other of the food chain. Along the way he teaches how to understand and interpret the numbers to which we would otherwise grow numb, and gives us ideas about how those of us who are now frightened and informed enough can take action. This text was published in hardcover as The World According to Pimm in 2001. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)