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Life Sustains Life

Stephen Hesse

The year 2010 has been the UN’s Year of Biological Diversity.  I can’t help thinking, however, that if we clearly understood the importance of biodiversity, we would dedicate each and every year, each month, week and day, to conservation.

As simplistic as it sounds, biodiversity is life — life in all its varieties, plants, animals and fungi, organisms ranging from microbes and plankton to blue whales and redwoods, and all the ecosystems that provide homes to this cornucopian wonder of creation.

Biological diversity also provides virtually everything we humans need and want from life. It is the source of our food, much of our shelter, our clothing and our medicines. It is the backbone of our global economy through production, trade and consumption. Our arts, leisure and entertainment, too, are linked to the myriad shapes, sounds, materials and colors of biodiversity. In short, when we speak of biodiversity we are also talking about the quality of human life and human survival. Life sustains life — ours among many others’.

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Stephen Hesse writes on environmental issues for The Japan Times.

See:"Our Planet Earth"

 

 

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