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It is impossible to delve far into Conservation and Biodiversity by Andrew P. Dobson (Freeman, $32.95, ISBN 0 7167 5057 0) without miserably concluding that life on Earth would have been much better off without humankind, the lordly despoilers with brains – but perhaps not quite enough. The book, a Scientific American publication, is a handsomely illustrated and urgently written call for preserving the richness of living things and their habitats with practical advice on how to do it. Dobson, a Princeton ecologist, does not abandon hope but makes it clear that it’s an increasingly desperate hope.