Biodiversity refers to the variety of plants and animals that make up an ecosystem. It turns out there is a direct connection between loss of biodiversity and human health problems. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet, presented by the American Museum of Natural History.
“Biodiversity loss means two basic things are going on. We’re losing ecosystems and changing ecosystems and we’re losing species.”
Francesca Grifo is Co-Curator of the Hall of Biodiversity at the American Museum of Natural History.
“When we lose species we lose the potential for new drugs. We lose medical models from which we learn about disease…Another impact of biodiversity loss on human health has to do with the loss of ecosystems and the changes in ecosystems. We’re dependent on ecosystems for many things that influence our health. Perhaps one of the most obvious is water. We in New York City, for instance, are completely dependent on water that’s filtered by nature, that’s filtered by watersheds in the Catskills. And if it didn’t come to us from there, either A, we’d be very ill all the time from water-borne diseases, or B, we’d have to spend literally billions of dollars on a filtration plant. But there are many other ecosystems services…Intact ecosystems tend to not have floods and droughts; intact ecosystems keep in check the size of populations of organisms that cause disease and carry disease. There are just many, many services that they provide.”
For transcripts of this and other programs in our series, please visit our web site at www.pulseplanet.com.
Pulse of the Planet is presented by the American Museum of Natural History. Additional funding for this series has been provided by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.