The state of extinction, what we know about declining species, and why biodiversity is so important.
![Lonesome George, the last Pinta Island Tortoise. Image: putneymark [CC-BY-SA-2.0] via Wikimedia Commons](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Lonesome_George_-Pinta_giant_tortoise_-Santa_Cruz.jpg)
Lonesome George, the last Pinta Island Tortoise. Image: putneymark [CC-BY-SA-2.0] via Wikimedia Commons
Despite my wife and I working as biologists, our five-year-old son came to make this statement independently.
He is highlighting what I and many others consider to be society’s biggest challenge, and arguably failure: the continuing loss of species from Earth.
