The human race may be threatened by the impending extinction of thousands of plants and animals, a United Nations report said last week.
The report marks the first time a substantial group of scientists — 1,500 from 50 nations — has released a statement about how important biodiversity is to Earth’s survival.
Biodiversity means all living things are connected. If even the seemingly most insignificant plant or animal is destroyed, other living things are affected. It’s like a house of cards: Pull one out and the whole thing collapses.
The pace of extinction is quickening, the report says: Flowering plants and vertebrate animals are becoming extinct at a rate 50 to 100 times the expected rate. And human beings are largely responsible, says group chairman Robert Watson. Population growth, economic development and failure to consider the effect of destroying or overusing resources — like timber, wetlands, rain forests, etc. — all add to the problem. But, Watson says, we can slow the rate of extinction by using “resources with knowledge (and) wise management.”
