ARTICLE SUBMITTED FOR PUBLICATION ON CARERS- HEALINGSPUR
BIODIVERSITY
There is a very good reason for there to be a lot of interest in biodiversity in many parts of the world today, and it occurs to me how little we know in spite of all the information we receive. Genetically modified foods and the long term effects is just one example, not everyone is exceptionally educated enough to understand everything they read or are told, and how many people bother to check the facts? So many people seem to be too busy in their personal lives to pay attention and prefer to leave our advancing technology and other important complicated issues in the hands of the experts, many of whom do great work, it is not generally what we are told that should bother us, but what is left out, all be it unintentionally, it is then up to us if we care enough to find out the facts. What is of concern among other vital things happening in the world today is the protection of the rain forests and the indigenous people who live there. How many of our important medicines are going to be lost? Almost all our antibiotics have been found in nature. The indigenous people of the jungle have the knowledge of what certain plants are, how would we know how to use them if we cannot share our knowledge with them, if we do not consider the welfare of these people they may not be there any more to answer our questions
Contrary to much of our own belief system on the owning of land the indigenous belief is that any land was given to them by a higher source in sacred trust to take care of all living things within it. They have the knowledge to answer our questions, and of what profit to them would it be? Is it honest or fair to them to give nothing in return and take their land in the process of harvesting for our own benefit? When science and nature work hand in hand there is great medical progress.
How many major drugs are we losing every two years?
How many of the top prescribed drugs are linked to discoveries made in the wild?
How many tropical plants have been screened?
For the answers to these questions and much more you will find them here in the article by Mark J Plotkin PhD - http://www.actionbioscience.org - Action Bioscience.
Mark J Plotkin PhD Author of The Shamans Apprentice, and more recently Medicine Quest. Mark J Plotkin is President of the Amazon Conservation Team and Research associate at the Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of Natural History
Ecoagents Reversing Global Warming, Saving Amazon Rainforest
