“After all, is it not now obvious that the world hunger problem cannot be solved by growing more food, but only by growing fewer people, and that more food will always result in still more people, who in turn will devastate ever more nature, inevitably exterminate ever more plant and animal species, and in the long run, make life for themselves and their children ever more difficult?”
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“For this reason, among others, I have no patience with the phony requests of developers, economists, and humanitarians who want us biologists to “prove” with hard evidence, right here and now, the “value” of biodiversity and the “harm” of tropical deforestation. Rather, it should be for them, the sponsors of reckless destruction, to prove to the world that a plant or animal species, or an exotic ecosystem, is not useful and not ecologically significant before being permitted by society to destroy it. And such proof, of course, neither they nor anybody else can offer!”
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“The Moon and the planets will be there forever, but the Earth’s biological diversity is being exterminated now. It is therefore imperative that we study and carefully preserve nature on this planet now, for this will be our last chance to ensure that biodiversity will survive for future generations. Protection of biodiversity needs to receive top priority in national and international planning. But if nature preservation is to be effective and long-lasting, it must become codified into law and incorporated into ethics and organized religion. Not only biologists and agriculturists, but every thinking citizen, every responsible politician and religious leader, has here an indispensable role.”
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by: Hugh H. Iltis, Director of Wisconsin Herbarium, Madison, Wisconsin
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these quotes are from the book "Biodiversity" in the chapter named above in the title. It is a very good book, but this chapter in particular is a good one.
I recommend it highly!
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