Species Extinction and Biodiversity

Another scientist is sounding the alarm over the extinction of species. Edward O. Wilson says, "as many as half the world's species may face extinction by 2100 because of pollution, climate change, human population growth and other influences." USA Today reports that he has been dubbed the "father of biodiversity", whatever that is.

So what if a bunch of species disappear! If they are that wimpy perhaps they don't deserve to survive. Why is it assumed that all species need to exist forever? How do scientists know that the disappearance of certain species is not the natural order of things? A lot of creatures have come and gone over the life of our planet and we seem to be getting along quite well without them. Count me as one who couldn't care less if the snail darter hangs around.

The article also says Wilson has "developed a field known as sociobiology, which seeks to link behavior in humans and animals to their evolutionary heritage." It doesn't say that he is the father of sociobiology; perhaps they haven't completed the paternity tests yet. It seems obvious to me that the behavior of every life-form would be linked to its evolutionary heritage.

Well, I looked it up. Wikipedia says:

"Biodiversity has no single standard definition. The most straightforward definition is "variation of life at all levels of biological organization". A second definition holds that biodiversity is a measure of the relative diversity among organisms present in different ecosystems. "Diversity" in this definition includes diversity within a species and among species, and comparative diversity among ecosystems."

So, in everyday language it means that scientists have discovered that there are a lot of different life forms out there, and they want to spend a lot of money studying them without us knowing what they are doing. I'm convinced that the reason we have so many of these arcane disciplines, like biodiversity, is that science students are running out of subjects for theses and dissertations. If a lot of the science stuff you hear about these days seems 'made up', it probably is.

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