How are climate change and the threat to biodiversity linked?
The causes of species extinction are, in order of magnitude of impact on biodiversity, summarized in the acronym HIPPO: Habitat destruction, Invasive species, Pollution, human over-Population, Overharvesting by hunting and fishing. Climate change is definitely a very big H. Is it already too late to avert disaster? It is not too late to stem and then halt the extinction of species and the ecosystems they compose. We are certainly too late to save some of them, but global action now can keep the final loss to a minimum. Science and technology will be a crucial part of the solution. Although vertebrates, corals, plants are reasonably well known, and form the basis of current conservation practice, the great majority of insect and other invertebrates remain unknown to science, as well as almost all bacteria and other microorganisms. These latter “Little things that run the world” are crucial to the survival of the larger creatures, including ourselves. We need a major initiative to explor
