Word: lovejoy
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...heritage. Moreover, the burning of the Amazon could have dramatic effects on global weather patterns -- for example, heightening the warming trend that may result from the greenhouse effect. "The Amazon is a library for life sciences, the world's greatest pharmaceutical laboratory and a flywheel of climate," says Thomas Lovejoy of the Smithsonian Institution. "It's a matter of global destiny...
...forest must be to sustain itself. If a park or protected area is too small to support some of its animal and plant life, the ecosystem will decline even with protection. As yet, no one knows the minimum critical size of a rain forest, but in 1979 Thomas Lovejoy, now at the Smithsonian Institution, set up a 20-year experiment with the cooperation of the Brazilian government to determine just that for the Amazon region. Among the findings: the smaller the forest, the faster the decline of insects, birds and mammals...
...times faster than at any time in human history," said Stephen Schneider of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Ecosystems will not be able to adjust so quickly, he said, "and the faster things change, the more likely it is that the impact will be negative." Warned Thomas Lovejoy of the Smithsonian Institution: "There will be no winners in this game of ecological chairs, for it will be fundamentally disruptive and destabilizing, and we can anticipate hordes of environmental refugees dwarfing the numbers of the Dust Bowl era or the boat people...
Even plants and animals with no immediate use are worth saving. Each contains a unique repository of genes that might someday have important applications in bioengineering. "Natural species are the library from which genetic engineers can work," says World Wildlife Fund Executive Vice President Thomas Lovejoy. "Genetic engineers don't make new genes, they rearrange existing ones...
Alarmed by the rate of tropical deforestation, scientists are no longer shy about criticizing commercial and public development schemes that eat away vast tracts of rain forest. "In the past, many biologists thought it was almost unscientific to get involved in conservation politics," says Lovejoy. "But no more. The rate of species loss is suddenly dawning on people." The warning has been heeded in government circles as well. The House of Representatives two weeks ago passed legislation sponsored by Gus Yatron, Democrat of Pennsylvania, mandating that the U.S. Agency for International Development set aside $10 million to preserve biodiversity...