Blame it on global warming, human encroachment, unfettered hunting or any number of other man-made ills, but the most respected inventory of biodiversity, the “Red List,” published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), says that one-half the world's mammals are declining in population and more than one-third probably face extinction. In fact, it is quite possible that a quarter of the planets 5,487 known mammals are clearly at risk of disappearing forever. It is easy to shrug off such statistics because most of us do not come into contact with mammals other than human beings in the course of a normal day. But there are any number of reasons that we should all be concerned about the disappearance of species, mammals or otherwise, from the face of the Earth. First, of course, we have a purely moral obligation to prevent the elimination of species based on human activity. Human beings may well be the most intelligent and advanced inhabitants of this planet, but the other species that have evolved along with us thrive on a life-force that is not granted them by man but by a higher power . Secondly, ecosystems are comprised of various manifestations of life and nature which are interdependent and cannot survive one without the other. Bodies of water evaporate into the air, eventually become rain, water the plants that humans and animals must have and refill the bodies of water and on and on. Too often conservationists are accused of getting in the way of business. Money takes precedence over preservation of nature as do the too often harmful chemicals that are used in manufacturing. Just as the current economic crisis is forcing people to reconfigure their life styles, so must the exigencies of global warming and damaged nature make us rethink the harm that our way of life has on the natural world. It must be done otherwise the world as we know it – indeed, the world itself
