The state of the world’s biodiversity

In this chapter, we ask several simple questions. How many species are there, both named and unnamed? How fast are species now going extinct? How fast do species go extinct normally? And how fast do they diversify and thus might be able to recover from the current massive losses? Finally, where are extinctions concentrated, and how can we use this information to prevent extinctions? This deceptively simple question has a rich - and even theological - pedigree. Westwood (1833) speculated ‘On the probable number of species of insects in the Creation’.

Duke Scholars

Author Stuart L. Pimm Environmental Sciences and Policy