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Biodiversity Insights > Ten Reasons to Save the Diversity of Life
Why does biodiversity—the diversity of life—matter? Why should we even worry about extinction, when fossil records show that species have always gone extinct naturally over periods of millions of years? Because in our era, the pace of extinction, and its cause, is dramatically different. Now, according to estimates by world-renowned conservation biologists, man's impact on the environment is causing species to vanish at a rate that is hundreds of times faster than the natural rate.
NatureServe's own comprehensive data for North America documents that in the United States alone, more than 500 species are known to be extinct or are missing. And extinction is forever.
Here are ten reasons to care:
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A mere 20 species provide about 90 percent of the world's food. All major food crops, including corn, wheat, and soybeans, depend on the introduction of new strains from the wild to cope with evolving disease and pests. If those strains are lost, the security of our food supply will be threatened. For example, a wild relative of corn called milpilla (Zea diploperennis) is exceptionally disease-resistant and is the only perennial in the corn family. If successfully interbred with domestic corn, its genes could boost corn production by billions of dollars. Zea diploperennis grows on only one mountain in western Mexico.
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Forty percent of all prescriptions dispensed in the United States are for substances derived from plants, animals, or microorganisms. The list of wonder drugs originated from wild species includes aspirin for pain relief (from meadowsweet), penicillin for antibiotics (from the pencillium fungi), digitoxin for cardiac treatment (from common foxglove), L-dopa for Parkinson's disease (from velvet bean), taxol for ovarian cancer (from the Pacific yew), and quinine for malaria (from yellow cinchona). Like unread books in the library of the universe, who knows what treasures await us in as yet undiscovered species? |
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Society derives most of life's necessities—food, clothing, medicine—from just a small number of plants and animals. Thousands of natural products are used routinely by industry to produce everyday goods. Consider just one wild source, the humble seaweeds. Compounds derived from seaweeds are used in plastics, polishes, paints, deodorants, detergents, dyes, fire-extinguishing foams, lubricants, meat preservatives, and chicken feed, to name a few among hundreds of products. By preserving the diversity of life, we act as trustee for the planet, preserving genetic capital for use by future generations. |
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| Ecologists and economists are only beginning to estimate the value of the services that healthy ecosystems provide to our planet. Bacteria break down organic material, building and fertilizing the soil. Wetlands filter pollutants from drinking water. Trees and plants return oxygen to the air through photosynthesis. Vast South American forests create rainfall on a continental scale, and store carbon as a buffer against global climate change. If it were ever possible for humankind to artificially duplicate these services, the cost would run to trillions of dollars annually. |
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Some species appear to be "keystones in the arch," supporting entire ecosystems, such as the sea otter in the Pacific coastal ecosystem. When these keystone species disappear, the web of life begins to unravel, as complex interrelationships of predator and prey are lost. It is a reckless gamble to lose now, through apathy or greed, something that we might one day realize was vitally important.
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We are driven by a desire for knowledge for its own sake. The millions of undiscovered species are a scientific frontier we will never conquer, but they must be preserved in order to be studied. Some scientists believe we know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the deep ocean floor on our own planet.
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Sameness is boring; differences engage our imagination. Humans are intrinsically drawn to variety in landscapes, and wild places provide beautiful variety to enrich our lives. Whether the destination is Yellowstone, Hawaii, the Alaska coast or Africa's savanna, people the world over travel thousands of miles simply to see and experience diverse landscapes. And nature's beauty is inspirational; it is hard to imagine art flourishing without nature as muse.
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The diversity of life is indescribably rich: each species on Earth is the result of millions of years of adaptation, an incredible and unique wonder of the universe with its own lessons to teach. More than any machine, species awe us with their complexity, particularly as science begins to unravel the mysteries of the genetic code.
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Does every species have a right to exist? If so, then our call to preserve creation is clear. But even if not, humility in the face of our capacity to despoil the land is called for. In biblical history, Noah took along on the ark two of every living thing, so they would not be lost forever. Many of Judeo-Christian heritage believe their faith enjoins them to be responsible stewards of creation, and similar themes run deep in other religious traditions as well.
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We will never recapture the wild land that Native Americans knew, where oysters formed reefs that rose above the surface of the Chesapeake Bay, and rockfish were so plentiful that the first English settlers claimed they scooped them from the water in frying pans . . . where majestic longleaf pine woods stretched for thousands of square miles across the Southeast coastal plain, and bison roamed the prairies by the millions. But we can and should preserve examples of these characteristic landscapes. They help us to understand the past and the people that shaped us, and in turn are a legacy we can hand to future generations.
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We are indebted to The Diversity of Life for many of
the examples cited here.
Text by Robert M. Riordan/©NatureServe
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"The one ongoing process that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats.
This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us."
—Dr. Edward O. Wilson, The Diversity of Life
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