The Guardian runs a story on the efforts of Brazil's environment minister to combat the burning of the Amazon rainforest. Biologist E.O. Wilson, among others, have made the case that there is more biodiversity in the Amazon than in the rest of Earth combined.
- Destroying rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal.
- If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.
- The one process now going on that will take millions of years to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us.
— E. O. Wilson
(See also this Audubon Magazine article.)
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