Professors Comments

• Biodiversity

Biodiversity has value because:

1 - a system is more resilient to stress and perturbation

2 - a system is more resilient to perturbation and disturbance 3 - adaption is more likely and genetically viable

4 - extincition IS natural and normal

5 - extinction rates since the turn of the century (1900) are over 100,000 times higher than any previous time in history

6 - the great extinction of the dinosaur's, the only other comparable mass extinction on a global basis, occurred over a millenium. Our current situation is equivalent loss of biodiversity in 100 years.

7 - Man is a natural part of the ecological world. As such, interactions (both positive and negative) are natural and not necessarily negative. However, the substantial increase in speed of these changes may eliminate many species because they can not adapt quickly enough (genetically) or relocate (ecological islands, i.e. parks).

8 - to some degree, biodiversity offers genetic codesthat may prove useful in medicinal and industrial ecology.