Book Review: "Ishmael"-Must Have Earnest Desire to Save the World

If there is anything to be taken away from the novel "Ishmael," by Daniel Quinn, it is this: the Earth is dying due to our own hand, and we are the only ones who can stop it.
The novel, a short 262-page moderate read, presents a fictitious scenario in which an anonymous young man answers a "wanted" ad, which reads, "TEACHER seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person."
The man answers the ad, at which point he is perplexed by a rather odd scenario-a gorilla in a room, behind a glass window. The namesake of the book is that gorilla.
After the first couple dozen pages, the book delves into its official format-a dialogue, presumably telepathically, is enacted between the young man and the gorilla, Ishmael. This primate grows into his role as a vastly wise, burdened creature.
The synopsis of their interaction, in very simplified terms, is this: the world is ending because humans have decided that as a race homo sapiens sapiens are highly evolved creatures, much more so than any other species on earth and therefore inherently they procure the right to do with the earth as they choose, casting all sense of inter-species brotherhood and preservation of, well everything, aside.
The novel touches a bit on the religious aspect of why and how man came to think of himself as a "better beast" than the rest. The biblical concepts of "The Tree of Life," "The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil," "Eve," and "The Apple" are all presented.
The "Tree of Life" is implemented into the young man's teaching as the tree originally intended for the "Leavers," the group of homo sapiens sapiens who chose to live "by the hands of the gods." They chose to be contented with their place amongst the other animals of earth and not to eat from "The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil," the apple of knowledge. Doing so would cause them to think they were "above the laws" of all other species, which kept the world at peace, with no one animal being held above another.
One of the main concepts of the novel is that the whole corruption of man came when he decided he could "outsmart" the gods, so to speak. This made him, over time, into a "Taker."
I chose this book to review because of my environmental science class. The book really spoke to me. I see its message all around me. I have worked in retail and in fast food. We use the things of this world without thought of the consequence. And ultimately this behavior will be both the scientific and the metaphorical death of our people.
As Ishmael asks, "With man gone, will there be hope for gorilla? "With gorilla gone, will there be hope for man?