Why should we care? What difference does it make if some species are extinguished, if even half of all the
species on
earth disappear? Let me count the ways. New sources of scientific information will be lost. Vast
potential biological
wealth will be destroyed. Still undeveloped medicines, crops, pharmaceuticals, timber,
fibers, pulp, soil-restoring
vegetation, petroleum substitutes, and other products and amenities will never
come to light.
It is fashionable in some quarters to wave aside the small and obscure, the bugs and weeds,
forgetting that an obscure
moth from Latin America saved Australia's pastureland from overgrowth by
cactus,
that
the
rosy periwinkle provided the cure for Hodgkin's disease and childhood lymphocytic
leukemia, that the bark of the Pacific yew offers hope for victims of ovarian and breast cancer, that a
chemical from the
saliva of leeches dissolves blood clots during surgery, and so on down a roster already
grown long and
illustrious despite the limited research addressed to it.
Which techniques does Wilson use in this excerpt to convey important information to his readers?
O Wilson uses humorous anecdotes that make the information more interesting.
Wilson uses metaphors that appeal to a wide range of the reader's senses.
Wilson relates the significance of the information directly to the reader's life.
Wilson refers to empirical statistics to relate the importance of his message.