Biodiversity

 

Life is a perpetual surprise. Just by tinkering with the molecule of DNA, life has created millions of species each one often more amazing than the last. Since the beginning, perhaps a billion of them. And more than a dozen million today.

This, then, is biodiversity, the richness of our planet, of which mankind is just one component part.
Even in the heart of the most modern cities, we depend on biodiversity for our survival.

Diminishing biodiversity means  reducing our chances of success, even of survival, in the future.

Medicine, agronomy and science in general are nourished by biodiversity, its principles and its genius. And neither industry nor technology can erase this primary truth.
And finally, should we invoke only rational or short-terms economic arguments for saving the beauty of the world that gave birth to us, the essence of our continuing happiness on earth?

The issue is all the more crucial now, when population growth and frenetic exploitation of natural resources are likely to cause the sixth mass extinction in our lifetime or that of our children.

But hope may still spring eternal, for our uniquely human propensity to admire nature may also entail a concern to protect this essential diversity.