The Last Extinction (2nd edition), co-edited with Kenneth Mallory (originally MIT Press, 1986). Les Kaufman is Chief Scientist and Head of the Edgerton Research Laboratory at the New England Aquarium, where Kenneth Mallory is Head of Publishing. Les Kaufman, Professor of Biology at Boston University, presented a SftPublic lecture Eye-to-Eye with Climate Change in the Ocean in 2011.

When the first edition of this thoughtful set of essays was published in 1986, the concern about modern extinctions across the wildlife spectrum was limited more to environmental scientists. Today the irrefutable fact of widespread and increasing extinctions is recognized by a wider public. This book explains, through different perspectives and areas of expertise, the implications for human life if animal extinctions continue at the present pace.

(from the MIT Press webpage) Contents: Why the Ark is Sinking, Les Kaufman. Mass Extinctions: New Answers' New Questions, David Jablonski. The Amazon: Paradise Lost? Ghillian T. Prance. Vanishing Species in, Our Own Backyard, James, D. Williams, Ronald M. Nowak. Riders of the Last Ark, Thomas J. Foose. Sharing the Earth with Whales, Norman Myers. Life in the Next Millennium - Who Will be Left in Earth's Community? David Ehrenfeld