Biodiversity: A Passion for Science, Politics, or Both

• Author: G. Tracy Mehan III
• Pages: 66-70

66 Best of the Books: Ref‌lections on Recent Literature

Biodiversity:

A Passion for Science,

Politics, or Both

By G. Tracy Mehan III

Saving Nature’s Legac y: Origins of the Ide a of Biological Diversi ty,

by Timothy J. Farnham. Yale University Press. 276 pages.

From the May/ June 2008 issue of The Environment al Forum.

One of Bill Murray’s funnier moments

comes in the 1984  lm Ghost Bust-

ers. His character, the very dodgy

Dr. Peter Venkman, is investigating a para-

normal event in a library. He asks the librarian

an entirely irrelevant, inappropriate ques-

tion regarding a certain biological function.

Another librarian objects:

“What has t hat got to do with it?”

“Back o, man. I’m a scientis t,” responds t he

unappable Dr. Venkman.

Science is the high ground in any policy

discussion. Sorting out science from policy

or politics is a prerequisite to a healthy public

debate in an open, democratic society.

I found myself thinking of Bill Murray while rea ding Timothy J. Farn-

ham’s informative, enlightening book Saving Nature’s Legacy: Origins of

the Idea of Biological Diversity, which oers a n in-depth history of an idea

which dominates environmental science, policy, and law in the Un ited

States and abroad.

My rst encounter with the concept of biological diversit y involved eco-

logical restoration of native Ozark landscapes and prairie ecosystems in

Missouri state parks during my tenure as director of the Department of

Natural Resources. e MDNR was a bit of a misnomer in that it was not