Recently, I was chatting with a newspaper reporter about the impacts of encroaching development in California’s Mojave Desert. I mentioned we could expect to lose some of the wondrous diversity of plants and animals that are adapted to such extreme desert conditions. Her response? “I know you’re right, but no one cares about diversity.”
Why is that? Biodiversity is the term used to describe the totality of plant and animal species in nature. We tend to like high diversity environments: national parks are more interesting than corn fields. Even when there is a high diversity of local plants available, we often bring in plants from distant areas of the world when we landscape our yards.
Aesthetics are fine, but when it comes to economic development, biodiversity is often sacrificed for economic progress, and that is a problem. Biodiversity provides a number of benefits to society that are often overlooked.
Cary Institute scientists have shown that when we live in biodiversity-rich areas, our risk of getting certain diseases, like Lyme disease and West Nile virus, is lower than when we live in fragmented areas with fewer species. When we grow crops in diverse settings, the need for pesticides is often less than when we grow them in extensive monocultures. Just ask the Irish about the problem of low diversity agriculture.
Plants and animals provide our daily food, fiber for paper, and wood for shelter. What we don’t often realize is that sharing land with a diversity of plants and animals provides additional benefits, beyond the mere harvestable yield.
Photo, taken on October 24, 2009, courtesy of Rennett Stowe via Flickr.