Monday, September 16, 2013

Dear Life

Loss of biodiversity is one of the great crises facing humanity and the earth it inhabits.  Unlike greenhouse gas accumulation, diminution of the ozone layer, and most forms of pollution, loss of biodiversity is irreversible.  Even if the most optimistic hopes for deextinction are one day realized, and individual species are indeed revived, living communities and ecosystems are far too complex ever to be faithfully reconstituted.  British newsmagazine The Economist includes an in-depth special report on biodiversity in its September 14th-20th, 2013, issue, entitled "Hang on - How economic growth will help prevent extinctions."  The report ends with the following bold admonition:
Many in the environmental movement regard economic growth and technological progress as enemies of biodiversity. Actually, they are its friends. Only through more of both can man hope to go on enjoying the company of the 8.7m or so other species with which he was born to share this planet.
Trust The Economist to inject its relentlessly commonsensical, yet simultaneously iconoclastic, perspective into this vital issue.  The cause of biodiversity preservation is so important that all views should be welcomed.