Before They Vanish: Saving Nature’s Populations—and Ourselves, edited by Paul R. Ehrlich, Gerardo Ceballos, and Rodolfo Dirzo, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024, 320 pp., $29.95 (hardback), ISBN: 978-1-4214-4969-2.

It has always been easier to condemn tragedies once they belong to the past—always after the fact, when the damage has already been done. In this work, Ehrlich, Ceballos and Dirzo boldly sound the alarm in time. The question is whether people will act to preserve endangered species before it is too late and before the consequences weigh heavily on ecosystems. The authors emphasise that the issue extends beyond mere environmental concerns; it is a fundamental challenge for humanity itself. Saving biodiversity also means protecting the conditions of our existence, often without realising it. The urgency is real, and the book urges action before disaster becomes irreversible, while populations can still be saved (p. 128).