Wild Solutions: How Biodiversity is Money in the Bank, Second Edition

276 Pages·2004·5.29 MB·English

by  Director Andrew Beattie

Wild Solutions

Wild Solutions
How Biodiversity Is Money in the Bank
Second Edition
andrew beattie paul r. ehrlich
with illustrations by Christine Turnbull
Yale University Press New Haven and London
Second Edition published 2004 in the United States by
Yale University Press and in Australia by Melbourne University Press.
First published 2001 in the United States by Yale University Press and
in Australia by Melbourne University Press.
Copyright © 2001 by Yale University.
Second Edition © 2004 by Yale University.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in
part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond
that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108
of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers
for the public press), without written permission
from the publishers.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2004107789
ISBN 0-300-10506-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for
permanence and durability of the Committee on
Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the
Council on Library Resources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Doug and Keira
To Mom and Melissa:
far apart in age; close together in spirit

Contents
Preface ix
one Introduction 1
two Exploring a Little-Known Planet 9
three Basic Survival 39
four The Natural Internet 52
five Thirst: Ecosystems and the World’s Water Supply 69
six Garbage Red in Tooth and Claw 77
seven Natural Enemies Are Best Friends 107
eight Naturally Selected 125
nine Miners’ Canaries and Sentinel Pigs 143
ten Chemical Engineers 161
eleven Blueprints and Inspiration from the Wild 181
twelve Wild Medicine 202
thirteen Savings and Loans 222
Afterword 229
Recommended Reading 251
Index 255

Preface
The discovery of new species—figuring out what they do in nature
and how they contribute to our wealth and happiness—is one of the
most exciting branches of science today. The study of biological diver-
sity, or biodiversity for short, is revealing a previously unimagined va-
riety of life forms on Earth. This research has become a powerful gen-
erator of ideas, opening fresh horizons of scientific knowledge with
many new products and industries as spin-offs. It has also given us a
glimpse into the workings of those natural mechanisms called ecosys-
tems that keep us all alive.
As an example, how often have you heard a friend ask exasperat-
edly, “Why on earth do mosquitoes exist!?” as he swats the little ani-
mal with his hand. Yet we now know that adult mosquitoes are im-
portant components of the food chains that feed birds, and their
larvae are a major ingredient of the diet of many fish. Most people ap-
preciate birds and fish, one way or another, and therefore appreciate
(with their heads, if not their hearts) the place of mosquitoes in na-
ture. But there is more. Some orchids require mosquitoes for pollina-
tion; and research on one mosquito species in particular is revealing a
potential breakthrough in the fight against malaria, one of the world’s
most disastrous diseases. We know all this because scientists are in the
process of discovering just how many species of mosquito there are,
what they do, and how they may be useful to us.
The study of biodiversity is providing answers to everyday ques-
tionsabout the millions of species that surround us—questions such