Today there is a BBC News article, with the results of the third Global Biodiversity Outlook. The article is titled "Nature Loss to Damage Economies." The second line reports ecosystems may become less useful to humanity.
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity project will quantify the monetary value of services that nature provides for us.
A chart from IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) of extinctions and near-extinctions puts our blue friend's family in the most endangered amphibian category. IUCN's site has three focal points. One claims 2010 the Year of Biodiversity, and while acknowledging that biodiversity is the foundation of life on earth, biodiversity "supports every aspect of human life and progress." Another focus notes that IUCN is working to make economic development more sustainable.
The language we use to describe the troubled marriage of economy and ecology contributes to the union favoring humanity over habitat. "You cannot manage what you do not measure," writes TEEB. Conceptual linguistic scaffolding. We must intuit the intention to save biodiversity, even as language usage reinforces the hierarchy of human domination over nature.
Today and tomorrow, the little blue frog and its descendants will live naturally. I will keep trying.
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