It's World Biodiversity Day, but where's the buzz?

Today marks the International Day for Biological Diversity, or World Biodiversity Day as it is more commonly referred to. The United Nations sanctioned event aims to promote discussion and awareness around the importance of biodiversity to our planet's health. It's one of the few days of the year when environmental debate isn't entirely focused on climate change.

This morning I arrived at my desk and opened up Google news, expecting to see a bump in the stories on biodiversity. There were a few headlines, mostly from smaller press in the developing world. I headed over to BBC World to see what they had on offer. While there were a number of smaller, dated stories on various species, no where was there any news on biodiversity itself. World Biodiversity Day, it seems, has gone largely unnoticed.

This is of grave concern. In the last century the diversity of species on earth has plummeted, largely due to anthropogenic intervention. This is reflected in our rainforests, our food supply, even our own backyards. As last count, 80 percent of our food supply was derived from only 20 individual species. Over six million square kilometers of the earth's tropic rainforests have been burned for pasture or cut for timber. Scientists estimate that one fifth of the world's species reside in tropical rainforests - what will we loose when they are gone forever? How many have already slipped through our fingers?

The general scientific consensus is that biologically diverse ecosystems provide more stability that their monoculture counterparts. Extinct is forever. Maybe it's time we reassess the direction we are heading in, and put preservation of biodiversity on the agenda. For real.

-Elaisha Stokes, Producer, Schad Gallery of Biodiversity