Extinction is Forever

It's ironic isn't it that at a time when the loss of species of living creatures is great, we seem to be discovering new species, previously unknown to science at a great rate.

New species discovered in the last twelve or so months include:

• a new type of Clouded Leopard in Borneo and Sumatra
• a new type of Malaria (not a new strain) in the Far East
• an isopod (a sort of louse) that survives on eating fish tongues
• a parrot no bigger than a man's thumb in Papua and New Guinea (PNG)
• a rat bigger than a man's arm - in fact the World's largest - in PNG
• a new species of song bird with a bald head in Laos

And there are many others.  The one thing that links all these new species is rainforest.  That is not to say that new species are only found in rainforests, they are not, but rainforests do host a disproportionate number of the new discoveries, with no signs that the pot is exhausted. If the rainforests of the World are squandered not only will we succeed in destroying a myriad of known species, but in all likelihood a host of species we don't even know about.  And humanity will be the poorer for it.

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