We've all heard the crime busters say, "Follow the money". In bringing miscreants to justice, that's good advice. Unfortunately, in other areas, that isn't always true. Currently, enormous sums of money are diverted from other areas into health-related fields. Following the money, students gravitate to those fields, leaving a poverty-stricken few for the rest of biology.
Well, not to downgrade personal health, there are other kinds of
healthiness that are also important in long run. Namely, the health of Spaceship Earth
which, if it fails, dooms us all. With most of the money and talented students drawn
into the health fields, other vital areas go begging. At a time of immense extinctions,
we have few students coming up through the ranks who can identify and classify
organisms. With ecosystems disintegrating around us, we have a meager number of
ecologists learning the ropes. When, more than ever, we need people who can tease out
an understanding of the web of life, we find our resources directed to the short term.
In the meantime, the earth collapses around us.
Contributor: Arthur H. Harris, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.
<<p class="three"> Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.