"The folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us"- what is the business equivalent of the folly the author is referring to?
Read the passage and answer the questions that follow on the basis of the information provided in the passage.Nature is like business. Business sense dictates that we guard our capital and live from the interest. Nature's capital is the enormous diversity of living things. Without it, we cannot feed ourselves, cure ourselves of illness or provide industry with the raw materials of wealth creation. Professor Edward Wilson of Harvard University says, "The folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us is the ongoing loss of genetic and spices diversity. This will take millions of years to correct".
Only 150 plant species have ever been widely cultivated. Yet over 75000 edible plants are known in the wild. In a hungry world, with a population growing by 90 million each year, so much wasted potential is tragic. Medicines from the wild are worth around 40 billion dollars a year. Over 5000 species are known to yield chemical with cancer fighting potential. Scientists currently estimate that the total number of species in the world is between 10-30 million with only around 1.9 million identified.
The web of life is torn when mankind exploits natural resources in short-sighted ways. The trade in tropical hardwoods can destroy whole forests to extract just a few commercially attractive specimens. Bad agricultural practice triggers 24 billion tonnes of top soil erosion a year losing the equivalent of 9 million tonnes of grain output. Cutting this kind of unsuitable exploitation and instituting “sustainable utilization” will help turn the environment crisis around.
