Wildlife expert Norman Myers once wrote. “We can marvel at the colours of a butterfly the grace of giraffe, the power of an elephant, the delicate structure of a dia-tom.

Every time a species goes extinct, we are irreversible improverished.” Aestpeties in itself is a good argument for saving species. As we preserve our collection for future generations, so we should preserve this living art form that painters and sculptors only dream of re-creating.

A second reason for protecting species is that other organisms have a right to live. Can we not guarantee them the right to exit, something that we ourselves doggedly strive for?

The third reason for preserving other organisms is a matter of ethical responsibility. As a species capable of destroying the world, some, ecologists and philosophers feel, we have a moral obligation to preserve organisms with lesser powers.

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The fourth reason for protection is that it makes good economic sense to do so. As Myers wrote; “From morning coffee to evening nightcap we benefit in our daily life style from the fellow species that share our One Earth home, Without knowing it, we utilize hundreds of products each day that owe their origin to wild animals and plants.

Indeed our welfare is intimately tied up with the welfare of wildlife. Will may conservationists proclaim that by saving the lies of wild species, we may be saving own.

From the biosphere we reap countless benefits: fish from the sea, medicines and other products from plant important plant and animal genes needed to improve domestic crops and live-stock, something for hunters to shoot at something for anglers to hook and reel in something for bird-watchers to peer at and research animals that help provide valuable insights into human physiology and behaviour.

The economic benefits of these activities can be enormous. In 1983 alone trout and salmon anglers spent an estimated $5 billion on equipment, transportation food and lodging and hunters and bird watchers spent billions on tennis shoes, supplies, books gasoline food and lodging. Billions of dollars pour into companies that cut timber or extract valuable medicines from plants.

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Each time we take a prescription drug, the chances are one in two that its origin was wild plant. The commenced value of such drugs is around $15 billion per year in the United States and about $40 billion worldwide.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that each year genes bred into commerical crops yield over $1 billion worth of food. Similar grains can be documented for Canada, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, Australian, and other agricultural nations.

About half of the increased productivity in com over the past 50 years has resulted from “genetic transfusions” from wild relatives of corn or primitive cultivaters in use only in isolated regions. Some biologists argue that the current high- yielding com, which produces 250 bushels per hectare (650 bushels per acre), could be increased fivefold with further genetic transfusions from its ancestors.

New developments are on the horizon that may offer financial grains and a more healthful life for us. For Example, the adhesive that barnacles use to adhere to the bottoms of ships may provide us with a substance to cement tooth fillings in place.

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A chemical derived from the skeletons of shrimps, crabs and lobsters (chitosanase) may serve as a preventive medicine against fungi infections. A new drug that kills viruses may be developed from a Caribbean sponge till now physicians have been virtually helpless in the battle against viruses.

The future of the biological world is one of grave economic concern. The loss of fish form acid rain and over fishing results in a loss of income to owners of fishing lodges and sporting goods stores. Ecological impoverishment will keep more of us to home, diminishing income to the recreation and tourism industry.

Plants and animals lost before they are explored for possible benefits will diminish our opportunities to flight disease and increase productivity.

A dozen genetic reservoirs (so-called centers of diversity) located in the tropics and subtropics are the source of virtually all commercially value plants and animal. And they provide genetic material needed in the continual battle to improve plant and animals resistance. Loss of these centers would have a global impact on food supplies.

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The final reason for preserving species is to protect ecosystem stability. All living organisms are an integral part of the biosphere and provide invaluable services.

These include the control of pests, the recycling of nutrients, the replenishment atmospheric oxygen, the maintenance of local climate, the control of groundwater levels, the regulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide and global climate and the control of flooding.

It is no exaggreation to say that civilization depends on the survival of the biological world. Perhaps in the short term a species lost here and there may be of little consequence for overall ecosystem stability but in the long term the cumulative effect of such losses may someday threaten our existence.

Critics of the animal protection movement argue that two much effort is directed to the savining to endangered species. Why was there so much fuss over the tinysnail darter a fish imperiled by the Tellico Dam built by the Tennesse Valley Authority (TVA).

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Surely this one species can have no great significance to us although no irreparable ecosystem damage would result from its extinction; the question that arises is where to draw the line. Wildlife advocates argue that if we take the attitude that each species by itself is dipensable, bit by bit we will destroy the rich biological world we live in.

Somewhere the line has to be drawn each endangered species in worth saving because it stops the momentum toward widespread destruction. In growth-oriented societies this momemtum may be difficult to stop, much less slow down. Therefore each hurdle put in its way becomes an important force in saving the living creatures that make up our web of life.