[Taxacom] Fwd: Nature needs names: 60 new dragonflies from Africa

[Stephen Thorpe]

If I look around me, I don't see "the biota going silent", but that could just be the situation here in N.Z. Ongoing development in tropical areas may well be destroying biodiversity on a massive scale, but it is being driven by massive commercial factors, and people are always going to put their standard of living (in the short term) first.  Deforestation probably not only endangers biodiversity, but may also be a big factor in global climate change, but one that hardly gets a mention in big old climate change roadshow. Loss of a few dragonflies isn't going to halt the bulldozers. It is however an effective way for authors to draw attention to their otherwise overlooked publications, in the name of conserving nature. But who benefits from that? Nature or author?

Stephen


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On Sat, 12/12/15, Peter Rauch <peterar at berkeley.edu> wrote:

 Subject: [Taxacom] Fwd: Nature needs names: 60 new dragonflies from Africa
 To: "Taxacom List" <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
 Received: Saturday, 12 December, 2015, 12:30 PM
 
 No one important***
 has been listening anyway, so if people "get turned
 off", no loss.
 
 What --in this instance/example-- has been
 "shouted in exaggerated
 contexts"  ?
 
 This example was not about "just another
 60 dragonflies" --that's the point.
 
 *** Look around you, look back
 just 60 or so years --who has been listening
 to the biota going silent ? That spectacle is
 our "exaggerated context". Do
 we
 shout, or quietly --as usual-- describe the next 60
 newly-recognized
 species ?  Shout now,
 shout often --dare to turn 'em off before they
 realize that we weren't shouting loud
 enough, often enough, EFFECTiVELY
 enough.   (Or in other words,
 don't press cancel; bother to elaborate.)
 
 Peter