THE MINER'S CANARY: Unravelling the Mysteries of Extinction By Niles Eldredge (Virgin, $119) NILES Eldredge is a man with little time for modesty. In his introduction to The Miner's Canary he writes: ''I set out to write this book with the goal. . . of finding a simple, overarching theory of extinction. I am convinced that I have found it.'' It is a brave claim. So brave that I am tempted to suggest that no one who has read this book has believed him. His overarching theory is an interesting one, but it is not overarchingly new. Mr Eldredge's idea is that there has always been extinction (the dinosaurs did it) and that there will always be extinction.
Climatic changes have led to extinction because they have changed the habitat of animals and plants. But they have also led to the evolution of new species. All this is natural. It therefore does not really matter if we lose the spotted owl or the Indiantiger, because extinction, at least on a small scale, is inevitable.
What does matter is that people learn to minimise the part they are playing in extinction. Central Park in New York is a fantastic migrant trap and an important stopover for birds each autumn and spring. Conserve those habitats, and species - not all butmany of them - will be saved too.
And there's the rub. What Mr Eldredge is saying is that if mankind learns to look after mankind, and therefore mankind's environment, the result will be fewer extinctions.
Too much emphasis is being placed by starry-eyed conservationists on those spotted owls in the Pacific Northwest. The clear-eyed view is that in order to save species, we first have to save ourselves.
The greatest problem with Mr Eldredge's theory, and consequently this book, is that it remains only a theory.