All is silent down at the pond

Conservationists are mistaken, argues Professor Tim Halliday in this week’s Green Room; many animals and plants cannot be saved from extinction, and the job of conservation scientists is to document them as they disappear.

As long ago as 1952, Rachel Carson predicted a ‘Silent Spring’ if humans did not change their relationship with the natural environment.

For many amphibians, the silent spring is now a reality, and in many parts of the world the calls of frogs have been silenced.

This is happening at a time when public and scientific interest in biodiversity has reached an unparalleled level, as realisation increases that planet Earth is entering the sixth major episode of extinction in its history.

BBC