From Neil Dale
Chris Thomas was not reassuring about the way that biodiversity will regenerate after the “anthropocene extinction” (11 January, p 28). The one question that I waited in vain for was: “How long will this regeneration take?”
Speaking as one of the humans in north-eastern America, I still mourn the loss of the elm and the chestnut a hundred years ago. Thomas perhaps takes too lofty a scientific perspective, and forgets that the replacement he predicts may take millions of years. Even if it takes only a geological instant – a few thousand years – for us, this regeneration may be more than the “inconvenience” he describes.
Bedford, Massachusetts, US
