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What is the single most
important thing (or a few
very important things) we—
as conservationists and as
people in general—can do
to help endangered species?

In very general terms, we as people need to
get back in balance with nature. There are
more people, using more resources, than the
Earth can support as a healthy population in
the long run. Global warming is just one of
the serious manifestations of this: because of
our current reliance on carbon-based fuels,
we dump into the atmosphere more carbon
dioxide than the air, oceans, lands, and biota
can absorb. This lack of balance between our
use of resources and what the Earth can provide
cannot continue forever.

Specifically, as conservationists, we need to
do several things: we need to get the message
out to society about this imbalance, we need to
identify ways of living that are less wasteful and
stressful on the natural world in which we live,
and we need to find positive ways that we can
support wildlife populations to give them the
resilience to persist until the larger societal level
solutions reestablish our balance with nature.

Many species are in for a rough time over
this century, and if they are lost we can’t bring
them back, even after we transition to renewable
energy, non-polluting industrial processes, and
wise protection of diverse landscapes. Human
activities have devastated ecological communi-
ties around the world, and a business-as-usual
or hands-off approach won’t repair the past
damage or prevent more. We need to actively
care for the human-altered landscapes, so that
we can exist with rather than against the
natural communities.

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