Species Extinction Is an “Ominous Picture”
The natural world holds wonders too numerous to be counted, whose beauty we often behold suddenly and unexpectedly. (A few seconds ago, when you checked out the latest posts here, you didn’t think you’d see an Alpine ibex, warming himself on someone’s chimney, did you?)
Yet as glorious as nature is, it’s certainly under immense pressure as human activity expands. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services wrote the other day that “nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history,” and that around 1 million of the planet’s 8 million species are currently at risk.
If you think that this is only about protecting animals that you’re unlikely to see atop your roof, realize that, when they die, so do we. “Protecting biodiversity amounts to protecting humanity,” UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said.
Eight million different forms of life, creatures large and small, living in the water, on land, and in the skies–are all in this together.
