**Biodiversity is critical for our civilization because it underpins the natural systems that support human life and economic activity. Specifically:**
Ecosystem Services: Biodiversity enables ecosystems to provide clean air, fresh water, fertile soil, pollination of crops, pest control, and climate regulation. These services are essential for agriculture, industry, and health.
Resilience to Disruption: Diverse ecosystems are more resilient to shocks like disease, droughts, or climate extremes. Monocultures or simplified ecosystems are more fragile and prone to collapse under stress.
Food Security: A diverse gene pool among crops and livestock helps resist pests, diseases, and changing climate conditions. Loss of biodiversity threatens food availability and nutritional diversity.
Medicinal Resources: Many modern medicines are derived from natural compounds found in plants, animals, and microbes. Reducing biodiversity risks eliminating future medical breakthroughs.
Cultural and Economic Value: Biodiversity contributes to cultural identity, tourism, recreation, and economies—especially in indigenous and rural communities.
Climate Regulation: Forests, oceans, and wetlands—rich in biodiversity—play key roles in absorbing carbon dioxide and moderating global temperatures.
Without biodiversity, ecosystems degrade, leading to cascading failures that threaten food systems, economies, public health, and political stability. It is a foundational layer of planetary habitability and civilization’s long-term sustainability.
Why Our Markets Rely on the Complexity of Nature, Thomas Crowther, the Great Simplification, youtube 71 minutes
**https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmIzU18Wh5k**
What is a biodiversity hotspot? California Academy of Science, youtube 6 minutes
**https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaQBaVeEbW8**
Secrets of the Forest | Full Documentary | NOVA | PBS, youtube 56 minutes