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TODAY Tuesday 2 September 1997 Each weekday. Conn Nugent on what's new in the world, on the site.

 

TODAY IN THE WORLD: Our Biodiversity Problems

A couple of years ago, some environmentally-minded foundations commissioned a series of polls and focus groups to plumb public attitudes about biodiversity. No one was surprised that the term "biodiversity" was virtually unknown among the respondents. What was most revealing, perhaps, was the relatively high number of people who said they knew what biodiversity was, but didn't. One favorite was a man in a focus group who said that biodiversity was a big government program, and he was against it.

You can argue that nomenclature doesn't matter much. Functionally, most American voters have the "right" opinion on the subject: Human beings should be very careful about the extinction of forms of life, and should try to save the natural places where they live. Some of this sentiment comes from what's called a "values perspective," i.e., that it's "just not right" for one generation to deprive a later generation of its natural heritage. But most of the impulse for popular conservationism comes from a utilitarian point of view. This is frequently voiced in terms of human health, as in not cutting down the rainforests because we might lose the chance to find the cure for breast cancer. (For more on public opinion and biodiversity, see the special report in our In The Trenches section.)

It turns out that nature itself may be more utilitarian than we thought. The current issue of Science features three new research articles, all of which share the common characteristic of weakening the link between biodiversity and healthy ecosystems. It is important for a thriving ecosystem to be able to rely on a relatively small number of crucial species, say the researchers, but most of the species who make for the "diversity" in biodiversity are more or less filler. In The New York Times this morning, Carol Kaesuk Yoon quotes Dr. Phil Grime as saying "There are often just a few animals and a few plants that are really running the show."

Yoon herself summarizes the issue this way: "What the new research suggests is that in previous studies, increased productivity and increased retention of nutrients were not caused by higher species numbers per se. Instead, simply by virtue of containing more species, biodiverse ecosystems will, on average, always be more likely to include those crucial species or groups that would result in higher productivity or sustainability."

In other words, we know now that not all species are equally important to the health of certain natural ecosystems but we don't know enough yet to fashion a universal methodology that will be more efficient than the uncritical preservation of ecosystems and all their habitats. Yoon points out that, in "simple ecosystems like farms and managed forests" humans already know how to enhance productivity through deployment of key species. Will we soon know how to do the same for complex ecosystems like bogs or grasslands? No, say Yoon and her researcher sources; the numbers of variables are of a completely different order of magnitude. To someone born in the first Truman Administration, it is something of a relief to know that, for a decade or two, at least, we and the ordinary voters of this country are on solid scientific ground when we say that the best public policy is to save as much as we can.

 

TODAY ON THE SITE:

Today we're posting an interesting new Capitol Hill Spy. Donald Sutherland writes that three enviro groups are employing securities regulations to compel corporations to disclose their environmental records, particularly as they pertain to Superfund liabilities. Can the disclosure requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission become a new green point of leverage?

 

Recent "Today" columns:

8/29: Babies
8/28: MegaSheep and SuperCow
8/27: East Asia / Southeast Asia
8/26: No Drama on the Rhine
8/25: The End of Nature Again
8/22: Our Friend Escerichia 0157:H7
8/21: Free the Greenpeace One Million!
8/20: Cattle and Jet Skis
8/19: Not Dirty, but Bad
8/18: Thirty Glorious Years

To access more "Today" columns, click "Archives" below.