Prognosis for and Relevance of Biodiversity on Our New Small Planet

The building blocks of the ecosystems that constitute humanity’s life-support systems are species of animals, plants, fungi, and microbes. This biodiversity is threatened by a constellation of factors, including habitat loss and degradation, overharvest, climate change, disease, invasive species, and pollution. All of these major factors are ultimately a function of human activity, and all can be mitigated somewhat by addressing human consumption, resource extraction, and industrial production.