In considering why anyone should give a second thought about a plant moving toward extinction with the name of the hairy beardtongue, one author — writing in the 1990s — asks us to first consider periwinkles. There are six species of periwinkles growing on the island of Madagascar, he notes. Halfway around the world, they might seem just as inconsequential as our hairy beardtongue. Yet one of those species, the rosy periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) . . .

. . . is the source of alkaloid chemicals vinblastine and vincristine, used to cure two of the most deadly forms of cancer: Hodgkin’s disease, especially dangerous to young adults, and acute lymphocytic leukemia, which, before the periwinkle alkaloids, was a virtual death sentence for young children . . . Ironically, the other five periwinkle species remain largely unexamined for their medical potential. One of them is near extinction due to the destruction of its habitat.

On a global scale, one out of ten plant species has been found to contain “anti-cancer substances of some degree of potency.” And we simply don’t know what we’re losing.

What we do know is that we lose them at our peril.

Biological Diversity: The Oldest Human Heritage (1999) by Edward O. Wilson is a short introductory book designed to make the case that no species should be allowed to go extinct, if possible. Originally written after a keynote address at the first New York Natural History Conference in 1990, Wilson — by that time a highly decorated and somewhat controversial natural scientist who had already won one Pulitzer Prize for his book On Human Nature and was soon to receive a second for The Ants — wrote this work to educate young people about the importance of biodiversity, the threats to it, and our response.

With original natural history illustrations by Patricia Kernan the book was designed to not only be helpful to high school biology students but to anyone “interested in preserving the integrity of earth’s delicate ecosystems through awareness and education.” I happened to find the pamphlet tucked away in our bookcase at home (speaking of habitats with many undiscovered elements), and despite its occasionally dated text and data the basic premise still strikes me as inordinately valuable in today’s world.

We don’t have much time to waste if we want to reverse the trends of loss in biodiversity. Human-induced changes to the habitat come with “such a velocity that it is too great for life to handle.” We are inducing change at such a rapid pace — merely a tick in geological time — that species do not have time to adjust.

Wilson makes the pronouncement early in the book that “Simple prudence dictates that no species, however humble, should ever be allowed to go extinct if it is within the power of humanity to save it.” Later the book provides an example of a species that we saw on our recent trip to Alaska, the musk oxen, that was near extinction.

Small populations of Musk Oxen live in Arctic regions, in some areas due to reintroduction. They huddle together when threatened, an effective defense against predators such as wolves, but one that allowed easy slaughter of whole herds by humans in the 18th and 19th centuries.

I’m not a scientist and have never had much of a bent toward the natural sciences. But I’m working hard to catch up on some of the basics. In travels around the world as well as in our hometown, I can see how habitats are being destroyed, to the detriment of the planet and life.

In the preservation and planning field we talk about the gobbling up of land that was once in a more natural state. A colleague recently wrote that by the year 2020, Peoria, Illinois — that town known in our culture as representative of middle-America — had more than doubled in size geographically since 1920 yet the population had stayed relatively the same. Now the same number of people are taking up twice the space as was true 100 years ago, for no real reason other than bad planning decisions and greed. You can repeat this scenario of open-space loss in town-after-town across America. I suspect that no matter our personal lenses, we can all see the problem easily enough if we try.

I am a fan of the printing of lectures and other short presentations by museums, nonprofits, and other educational institutions as an easy-to-access introduction. This one gave more context to some of the recent works I’ve been reading, and enourages me to explore more.

Science is just one of many tools we use to understand the world. But curiosity and wonder help expand our knowledge. Reading widely about topics in which we are not expert helps us accept change more readily as we broaden our worldview. This is another small step along my path.

More to come . . .

DJB

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Related posts on MORE TO COME:

• The past and future of one weird rodent (January 2023)
• The networks that sustain and shape us (April 2023)
• One odd and fascinating creature (May 2023)
• Becoming receptive to what lies all around us (June 2023)
• Life beyond the road system (April 2023)
• Our entangled life (January 2022)
• The importance of roots (November 2016)

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The Weekly Reader links to the works of other writers I’ve enjoyed. I hope you find something that makes you laugh, think, or cry. 

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Image by Adina Voicu from Pixabay