[00:09] The most striking feature of Earth is its life, and the most striking feature of life is its diversity.

[00:15] Not only a source of wonderment and curiosity, this biological diversity or Biodiversity, represents the health of our planet.

[00:24] Today, Earth's biodiversity is decreasing sharply. And scientists believe humans are the cause.

[00:30] David Tilman, Cedar Creek Natural History Area
'We've entered this era where, whether we like it or not, we are controlling the path that the world is following. There's never been one organism like humans, which has had this kind of influence.'

[00:41] What does the loss of biodiversity mean for the ecosystems, both natural and managed, that humans depend on for survival?

[00:48] David Tilman, Cedar Creek Natural History Area
'In the last hundred years, we are having about a 15-fold greater impact. These are more people each consuming more than ever before; so there is less nature per person than there ever was...'

[00:57] '...And nature not only is nice to see, but it provides you with a lot of services, whether it's clean water, fertile soil for farming, provision of compounds that we mine and take out, if you will, as we discover new drugs and uses that we're using biodiversity in those ways. And these services, we take for granted.'

[01:15] Our future world will, unavoidably, be of human design, whether deliberate or haphazard. In this design, the Earth will retain its most striking feature, its biodiversity, only if humans have the foresight to allow it.