Sanctuary Asia — January 2018

Sanctuary | Perspective

Seasonal blooms at Munnar, Kerala. “Earth remains a little-known planet. Flowering plants come in

with about 2,70,000 species known and as many as 94,000 awaiting discovery.”

of human activity, it is believed that

the current rate of extinction overall is

between 100 and 1,000 times higher than

it was originally.

This grim assessment leads to

a very important question: How

well is conservation working? How

much have the eff orts of global

conservation movements achieved in

slowing and halting the devastation

of Earth’s biodiversity?

Despite heroic eff orts, the fact is that

due to habitat loss, the rate of extinction

is rising in most parts of the world. The

preeminent sites of biodiversity loss are

the tropical forests and coral reefs. The

most vulnerable habitats of all, with the

highest extinction rate per unit area, are

rivers, streams, and lakes in both tropical

and temperate regions.

Biologists recognise that across the

3.8-billion-year history of life, over

99 per cent of all species that lived are

extinct. This being the case, what, we are

often asked, is so bad about extinction?

The answer, of course, is that many

of the species over the eons didn’t

die at all — they turned into two or

more daughter species. Species are like

amoebas; they multiply by splitting, not

by making embryos. The most successful

are the progenitors of the most species

through time, just as the most successful

humans are those whose lineages

expand the most and persist the longest.

We, like all other species, are the product

of a highly successful and potentially

important line that goes back all the way

to the birth of humanity and beyond

that for billions of years, to the time

when life began. The same is true of

the creatures still around us. They are

champions, each and all. Thus far.

7

The surviving wildlands of the world

are not art museums. They are not

gardens to be arranged and tended

for our delectation. They are not

recreation centers or reservoirs of

natural resources or sanatoriums

or undeveloped sites of business

opportunities – of any kind. The

added to estimates for algae, fungi,

mosses, and gymnosperms as well as

for bacteria and other microorganisms,

the total added up and then projected

has varied wildly, from 5 million to more

than 100 million species.

If the current rate of basic

descriptions and analyses continues, we

will not complete the global census of

biodiversity — what is left of it — until

well into the 23rd century. Further,

if Earth’s fauna and fl ora is not more

expertly mapped and protected, and

soon, the amount of biodiversity will

be vastly diminished by the end of the

present century. Humanity is losing the

race between the scientifi c study of

global biodiversity and the obliteration

of countless still-unknown species.

5

From 1898 to 2006, 57 kinds of

freshwater fi sh declined to extinction

in North America. The causes included

the damming of rivers and streams,

the draining of ponds and lakes, the

fi lling in of springheads, and pollution,

all due to human activity. Here, to

bring them at least a whisper closer

to their former existence, is a partial

list of their common names: Maravillas

red shiner, plateau chub, thicktail chub,

phantom shiner, Clear Lake splittail,

deepwater cisco, Snake River sucker,

least silverside, Ash Meadows poolfi sh,

whiteline topminnow, Potosi pupfi sh, La

Palma pupfi sh, graceful priapelta, Utah

Lake sculpin, Maryland darter.

There is a deeper meaning and long-

term importance of extinction. When

these and other species disappear at our

hands, we throw away part of Earth’s

history. We erase twigs and eventually

whole branches of life’s family tree.

Because each species is unique, we close

the book on scientifi c knowledge that is

important to an unknown degree but is

now forever lost.

The biology of extinction is not a

pleasant subject. The vanishing remnants

of Earth’s biodiversity test the reach

and quality of human morality. Species

brought low by our hand now deserve

our constant attention and care.

6

How fast are we driving species to

extinction? For years paleontologists and

biodiversity experts have believed that,

before the coming of humanity about

200,000 years ago, the rate of origin

of new species per extinction of existing

species was roughly one species per

million species per year. As a consequence

BABU THOMAS/ENTRY-SANCTUARY

WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY

AWARDS

2017

There is a deeper meaning and long-term importance of extinction. When these and other species disappear

at our hands, we throw away part of Earth’s history. We erase twigs and eventually whole branches of life’s

family tree. Because each species is unique, we close the book on scientifi c knowledge that is important to an

unknown degree but is now forever lost.