Come December 29th, we'll be celebrating something unique.
No, it's not a festival. Yet, it is a celebration. Of the good that's left with us and our successes. We also try to learn from our mistakes. We'll be celebrating the International Day for Biological Diversity.
Ranger Rani says, mark this day on your calendar for it is a spring board for bigger things to come. United Nations has declared 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity.
Wonder what biodiversity is? Let's say there is a forest patch or woods near your home. Perhaps you see an old field that is no longer being cultivated. Or even an abandoned orchard. The land isn't frequented by people.
Choose this path. Breathe the air. Does it smell different? Damp, perhaps. Or dry. Listen to the birds, animals, and their noisy interactions. Watch every step you take. You could be stepping on snake, snails, worms, and even the poop of animals. Look around the trees, shrubs, herbs and grass. Are they draped in moss? Are the woody stems wound up with crusty looking lichens?
Ranger Rani wants you to stand perfectly still and watch the creatures around you, the number of creatures in this small patch will amaze you. There are creatures living in the soil, fluttering bees and butterflies, and birds that dive in the air. These creatures pollinate flowers and disperse seeds. They all fill the large puzzle of biological diversity. Biodiversity, as is known in common parlance.
Biodiversity of the patch you are standing on is more than that. Scientists know that the soil has unique microbes. The microbes on the leaf surface are different from the microbes on the bark. Then, there are different microbes on seeds and fruits. This is microbial biodiversity.
Ranger Rani also wants you to look at the largest group of creatures, insects. They are everywhere. They live in land, water and air.
Scientists have collected unique beetles from the canopy of rainforest trees. About 90% of the beetle species weren't to be found on the forest floor. What's more, every tree species has a unique assemblage. This too is a puzzle that fits into biodiversity.
The biological diversity of this patch is all this. It is the total of the seen and unseen creatures. It is an exciting world of species interconnections awaiting human discovery.
Sooner or later, every human search for medicines, food, fiber, and survival ends up in a patch like this. Biological diversity is a golden pot. We don't know how it will help us. Our knowledge of the species is so poor that we don't even know what we're harming when we remove or add something into this patch.
Don't stir the golden pot. The gold doesn't spill out. It evaporates. A chain of species, one after another, disappears. Some are gone forever. They become extinct. When we finally look up, we'll see nothing but a desert.
Scientists have identified a dozen animal species or groups that are being threatened. It is largely climate change driven. As the temperatures of the land and sea rise, patterns of weather change, organisms are exposed to new diseases and pathogens and we remove natural predators, we're endangering our own survival.
John Muir said: When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe. If you plant a tree or protect a tree today, you can provide home to millions of creatures.
Do it today! And hold the golden pot of biodiversity in your hands!
