This week’s book is “100 Heartbeats: The Race to Save Earth’s Most Endangered Species” by Jeff Corwin.

Book Summary: 100 Heartbeats is a sobering portrait of endangered wildlife that is slipping away, silent victims of climate change, human overpopulation, habitat loss, pollution, exploitation, and poaching. In a global call to action, Corwin shares with us the plight of polar bears in the Arctic Circle, tigers in India, elephants, gorillas and rhinos in African countries, dolphins and alligators in China – and many more. 100 Heartbeats is a serious reality check – a warning that if we do not take action, more species will continue to be lost to extinction. The book’s title refers to critically endangered species and subspecies that have 100 or fewer individuals left.

Why this book is important: 100 Heartbeats is not comprised of the usual conservationist platitudes. Corwin’s well-placed outrage is palpable as he shares with us the disastrous toll that wanton human development, greedy industrial expansion and thoughtless propagation of the human species is taking on ecosystems in every corner of the world. He has taken a welcome risk at pointing the finger of blame squarely at us humans for the sorry state of our planet’s natural resources. But he also shares success stories – stories that would not be possible without dedicated people who made the decision to make a difference.

100 Heartbeats is a rallying cry to anyone who has ever wondered if it is too late: It is not too late – and you can start to make a difference today.

Quotable moment:

There’s little in life that’s more disturbing than the sight of a dead rhino flat on its side with a bloody hole in its head where its horn used to be. Or a gorilla that’s been reduced to little more than a stump, its hands and feet having gone the way of its dignity. Or an elephant that’s been stripped of its face and its once-mighty trunk – powerful enough to knock over a tree – to give poachers access to the bases of the tusks.

How can we reconcile the moral chasm that lies between a 5,000-pound rhino carcass and a few pounds of harvested horn? It’s difficult not to feel that all of humanity has let these animals down by failing to protect them from our species’ worst impulses.

Where to purchase ’100 Heartbeats’

You can purchase 100 Heartbeats: The Race to Save Earth’s Most Endangered Species online at Barnes & Noble.

Rhishja Cota-Larson

I am the founder of Saving Rhinos LLC, which publishes news and information about the global rhino crisis. Besides writing Rhino Horn is Not Medicine, I am the author of the book Murder, Myths & Medicine, the Editor of Project Pangolin, and a writer for the environmental news blog Planetsave. When I'm not blogging about the illegal wildlife trade, I like to rock out to live music.

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