Biodiversity and the Rare

Why are rare life forms important? Because they make up more of the biodiversity than common life forms. In fact most species are rare.

Shaking a tree in the amazon knocks hundreds of beetle species into a net. Some of them will be new, previously undiscovered species. Shake the next tree and you'll keep getting undiscovered species. There's more hidden in the next tree too.

Each beetle holds a secret and unique life cycle with subtle differences from the rest, perhaps one of them synthesizes a molecule that cures cancer. Or it could be interesting enough to inspire great art that addresses the human condition. Or it could be so shiny that they'll crush it to make lip gloss... but even if this beetle has no value to humans at all it still has a right to exist doesn't it?

Well let's think about human diversity. Humans don't have true races so I'm not talking about racial diversity. We also don't have very much genetic variation, so I'm not talking about a vast store of DNA that needs to be preserved. What we have is language and culture. But those can go extinct too.

Roughly 42% of people speak the top twelve major languages as their first language. This is equivalent to 42% of a lawn being covered in dandelions. According to Ethnologue there are 6,912 living languages in the world. Ethnologue is a christian linguistic organization that has the mission of providing bibles in the native tongue of indigenous people.

Even if each language was spoken equally by the remaining 58% of the population that means each one is spoken by just over 500 people. But the truth is that some are only spoken by one. Dead languages walking, just like dead species walking.

Like the unique beetle, each of these languages and cultures is a different way to see the world. Maybe a chance for Human culture to reinvent itself.