DISAPPEARING PLANTS AND ANIMALS – From Chapter 5. Natural Systems Under Stress
Lester R. Brown, Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble
Pag.95
Species of all kinds are threatened by habitat destruction, principally through the loss of tropical rainforests. As we burn off the Amazon rainforest, we are in effect burning one of the great repositories of genetic information. Our descendents may one day view the wholesale burning of this genetic library much as we view the burning of the library in Alexandria in 48 bc.
Pag.98
In the new world we are entering, protecting the diversity of life on earth is no longer simply a matter of setting aside tracts of land, fencing them, and calling them parks and preserves. Success in this effort depends on stabilizing both climate and population.
On the plus side, we now have more information on the state of the earth and the life on it than ever before. While knowledge is not a substitute for action, it is a prerequisite for saving the earth’s natural systems—and the civilization that they support.
