[Taxacom] article on taxonomy

[Bob Mesibov]

An excellent place to get an overview of the connections between biodiversity loss and the multitude of non-scientific issues that affect environmental management is the UN's Global Environmental Outlook. Please see the biodiversity chapter in GEO4 (2007): http://www.unep.org/geo/geo4/media/

A cynic (who, me?) might argue that the main reason people want biodiversity data before making decisions is that collecting and dealing with such data is a lot easier than changing anything else, e.g. societal attitudes and market pressures. In any case, the grand agreement of the Convention on Biological Diversity to significantly slow the loss of biodiversity by 2010 was doomed to fail. In the 18 years since that binding international treaty was signed, the world's human population has increased by ca 25%.
-- 
Dr Robert Mesibov
Honorary Research Associate
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, and
School of Zoology, University of Tasmania
Home contact: PO Box 101, Penguin, Tasmania, Australia 7316
(03) 64371195; 61 3 64371195
Website: http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/mesibov.html