By Paula J. Ehrlich, DVM, PhD, President & CEO, E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation The great challenge of our time, protecting the world’s biodiversity, got major support when over 150 nations gathered last winter in Montreal to agree to a Global Biodiversity Framework at COP15. It was E.O. Wilson’s fervent hope that nations would come together and embrace our moral obligation to addres
“Stories help people understand and become engaged with what’s happening around us…In 2019, the UN warned that 1 million species of plants and animals were threatened with extinction. Those big numbers were surprising, but it allows you to pay attention because somewhere within, you can recognize we are touched by those creatures and be touched by the fact that we are losing them
Now more than ever, a new generation of taxonomists are needed to explore, identify, and study Earth’s vast biodiversity as human action threatens the possible extinction of over 1 million species in just the next few decades. The late E.O. Wilson’s last lecture was a call to action to support this important task and area of scientific study. “The most effective point of entry for the study