The Biodiversity Heritage Library’s open-source archive contains wonders of all kinds. By Eleanor Cummins
There are thought to be
about 10 million distinct species of plants and animals on Earth. That number
is incomprehensibly large, not least because most species are still
undiscovered. But now the Biodiversity Heritage Library, an
open-access repository for some of the most stunning images collected of life
on Earth, is helping to make these ecological wonders all the more real: It’s
made more than 2 million
images of our planet’s biodiversity available online for free.
Anyone can explore the expansive collections, study the digitized materials,
and even download the images for whatever scientific - or artistic - project you
have in mind.
Many of the figures in
the library’s collection inspire delight, an assortment of
real-life Harry Potter creatures. But still others are
tinged with existential darkness, like an old black-and-white photo of the
American bison, the image of a slain eagle, or renderings of other endangered
species. They’re another reminder that many scientists believe we’re in the
midst of a great extinction, during which huge numbers of species will die en
masse, many of them before even being discovered. And unlike past extinctions,
which were caused by random shifts in Earth’s atmosphere, this one’s caused by
us.
In her 2014
book, The Sixth Extinction,
Elizabeth Kolbert suggests the changes the world is undergoing are the result
of the so-called Anthropocene, a new
geological epoch defined by human dominance and the danger that comes with it.
Depending on how you count it, since at least the Industrial Revolution, humans
have been reshaping the globe to disastrous results. As a result, Kolbert
writes, “it is estimated that one-third of all reef-building corals, a third of
all freshwater mollusks, a third of sharks and rays, a quarter of all mammals,
a fifth of all reptiles, and a sixth of all birds are headed toward oblivion.”
As Josh Jones writes
in a blog post at Open
Culture on the newly released series, appreciating biodiversity
is perhaps one of the small ways to stop this spiral. If we want to
understand what is at stake besides our own fragile fossil-fuel based
civilizations, we need to connect to life emotionally as well as
intellectually. Short of globe-hopping physical immersion in the earth’s biodiversity,
we could hardly do better than immersing ourselves in the tradition of
naturalist writing, art, and photography that brings the world to us.The archive provides
an easy way to remember that beauty… read more:
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2017/11/the_biodiversity_heritage_library_made_2_million_images_free_for_public.html
