Native Plant Conservation Campaign News:  often overlooked, declining plant biodiversity sows trouble for humans says Botanical Society of America President

May 21, 2019

 

On May 9, Andrea Wolfe, President of the Botanical Society of America and Ohio State University professor of Plant Biology was interviewed on Here and Now, a show on the National Public Radio station WBUR in Boston.

 

The interview addressed the disturbing recent United Nations assessment which found that about 1 million species are currently at risk of extinction, putting life on earth, including humanity, at unprecedented risk. (See NPCC News on the UN Extinction Crisis Report)

 

Professor Wolfe discussed the problem of Plant Blindness and how it undermines efforts to address extinction and other environmental crises.  “I really want to emphasize that we absolutely rely on plants for our existence,” Wolfe [said]. “From an ecological standpoint, plants are the primary producers in any ecosystem. They're the ones that can make food out of just the basic ingredients of sunlight, water and some mineral nutrients. So everything depends on plants as the primary producers.”

 

She also discussed ways in which we can fairly easily help fight extinction and conserve plant diversity and plant ecosystem services.

 

 

Fight Plant Blindness Photo: (c) The Guardian UK