Biodiversity or Biomass

The worst current example of pseudo science is the corruption of the concept of Biodiversity. At Rio, a strong case was made for the maintenance of the number of species. We know from the fossil record that many species have appeared, run their course, then died out. Some suspect that we are currently going through a period mass extinction, though when he examined the evidence for this, Bjorn Lomborg was sceptical that the rate of extinction is abnormal. It is, however, reasonable to suppose that a period of rapid climate change, such as we may now be experiencing, will challenge the natural worlds ability to adapt rapidly – as the snowline moves up a mountain, the alpine plants cannot go higher than the summit!

But examine the word biodiversity. It is about more of the others, not more of the same. But the UK biodiversity action plan is really aimed at preserving biomass rather than focusing on species that are currently threatened, or species that will be threatened by climate change, or species that could be accommodated if displaced from elsewhere by climate change (with all the associated risks of introduction of alien species).