As much as we like to think of ourselves as being different and special, humans are a part of Earth’s biosphere, created within and by it. Ultimately, it is the living, breathing elements of this world that we need more than inanimate supplies, such as coal, gas, or bauxite ore. We can live without cars or beer cans, but we cannot without food and oxygen. As nations around the globe try to band together to attack the problems of greenhouse gas emissions and the shrinking availability of fresh drinking water, in all corners of the world thousands of species quietly go extinct. E. O. Wilson, the renowned Harvard biologist, recently presented the problem our species faces in a succinct law: “If you save the living environment, the biodiversity that we have left, you will also automatically save the physical environment, too. But if you only save the physical environment, you will ultimately lose both.”
* biosphere: 생물권
** ore: 광석 *** succinct: 간결한