Here are two facts that are rarely put together, but which I think should be much more often.
1) Tropical rainforests today cover around 16% of Earth’s land surface but harbour an estimated 50% of all terrestrial biodiversity.
2) So far, Earth is the only planet in our galaxy that we know hosts complex life.
Of course, fact two comes with that huge caveat that we’ve not even started scratching the surface of space exploration. But for now at least, we can say that both these things are true. And when we recognise this, it leads to quite a powerful vindication.
As conservationists, we (maybe understandably) get mocked for worrying about the vanishing of some little-heard-of bat species, the steep decline of some river dolphin or other, or the extinction of a frog most normal people never knew existed.
But what many conservationists really worry about most of all is the vanishing of habitats. In particular, those habitats like tropical rainforests (and coral reefs) that do most of the heavy lifting when in comes to supporting life.
When we realise that such habitats are not only hothouses for life on Earth, but also might very well store much of the genetic diversity residing in our entire galaxy and beyond…Well, suddenly efforts to safeguard these ecosystems take on a whole new level of importance. And the constant urge to dismantle, degrade, undermine, fragment and replace them starts to seem more than just a tad silly.
So maybe we should start thinking about rainforests in cosmic terms.
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