Applause applause !!! for Conservation International’s new Biodiversity Hotspots Web site and continued focus on biodiversity. The Web site invites us to explore the most critical regions for protecting the planet’s animal and plant life. What an uphill battle right now for biodiversity crusaders, though, as the world is distracted, to put it mildly, by the economic crisis. I used the Google Trends tool to see how much we’re using the Web to learn more about the economic crisis vs. what is happening to the creatures on this planet, and the snapshot below really tells the story. Note the upswing in Web activity re: the economy, the parallel track for global warming (which has a connection to economic activity) and the lack of uptick on biodiversity terms like extinction and endangered species.
Everybody, we just have to keep at it. And Conservation International is setting a great example for creativity and commitment.
February 9, 2009 at 3:58 pm
You don’t think there might be just a teeny justification for including threatened agriculture? Or, if they cannot bring themselves to do that, maybe even threats to the wild relatives of crop plants, without which at least one species is more or less doomed?
February 9, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Absolutely there is justification. Conservation International’s charter, as I understand it, is animal life, though.
February 10, 2009 at 1:06 am
Excellent! And what will the animals eat … ?