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Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Magazine article
With every extinction, we lose not just a species but a treasure trove of knowledge
The Conversation, Vol.29 December 2025
2025
Appears in The Conversation
Abstract
The millions of species humans share the world with are valuable in their own right. When one species is lost, it has a ripple effect throughout the ecosystems it existed within.
But there’s a hidden toll. Each loss takes something from humanity too. Extinction silences scientific insights, ends cultural traditions and snuffs out spiritual connections enriching human life.
For instance, when China’s baiji river dolphin vanished, local memory of it faded within a single generation. When New Zealand’s giant flightless moa were hunted to extinction, the words and body of knowledge associated with them began to fade.
In these ways, conservation is as much about safeguarding knowledge as it is about saving nature, as I suggest in my research.
We’re currently living through what scientists call the planet’s sixth mass extinction. Unlike earlier events triggered by natural catastrophes, today’s accelerating losses are overwhelmingly driven by human activities, from habitat destruction to introduced species to climate change. Current extinction rates are tens to hundreds of times higher than natural levels. The United Nations warns up to 1 million species may disappear this century, many within decades.
This extinction crisis isn’t just a loss to broader nature – it’s a loss for humans.
Details
- Title
- With every extinction, we lose not just a species but a treasure trove of knowledge
- Authors
- Johannes Michael Luetz - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Academic Support Unit
- Publication details
- The Conversation, Vol.29 December 2025
- Publisher
- Conversation Media Group
- Date published
- 2025
- DOI
- 10.64628/AA.9xcwp4ap6
- ISSN
- 2201-5639
- Copyright note
- © The Conversation Media Group. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Organisation Unit
- Academic Support Unit; Sustainability Research Cluster
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991201650102621
- Output Type
- Magazine article
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