Download Biological Diversity - New York State Museum

M
ARVELOUSLY VARIED, HAVING COMPLEX
LIFE CYCLES, AND TEEMING BY THE MILLIONS
IN EVERY ACRE OF LAND, SPRINGTAILS PLAY
VITAL ECOLOGICAL ROLES BY CONSUMING
DEAD VEGETABLE MATTER.
communism and Russian-U.S. relations entered their most cooperative period
since the Second World War. The industrialized countries could now, it seemed,
turn more of their energies to domestic reform, including improvement of the
environment.
It appeared to many scientists, the public and political leaders that this opportunity
was realized not a moment too soon. What were previously viewed as mostly
local events such as pollution of a harbor here or landfilling of a marsh there, had
coalesced into secular global trends. Through advances in technology, scientists were
able to make precise measurements of changes in the atmosphere and of the rates
of deforestation and other forms of habitat destruction. And when the iron curtain
lifted, the environment was revealed to be even worse off in socialist countries than
in the capitalist West. Action to reverse the decline was demanded everywhere.
B i o l o g i c a l
8 D i v e r s i t y