The wonder and beauty in the diversity of nature itself is the inspiration for the Darwin Project.
In 1859 in the Origin of the Species Charles Darwin wrote:
| “It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner…There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” |
Truly, life on earth is an explosion of forms, functions, and interactions so vast and varied that the human mind has difficulty conceiving of even a fraction of its full extent.
The same ingenuity that allowed us to split the atom and crack the genetic code has barely begun to explore the foothills, let alone the heights, of the diversity of life. Biological diversity is earth’s greatest frontier.
The exploration of biodiversity is an enterprise with a time limit. Though the rest of life provides us with benefits too numerous to list and too vital to replace, this is not reflected in our stewardship of the earth. It is imperative that humanity find its place in nature before that place is lost.
The Darwin Project will shine a light on biodiversity in all its splendor and fragility. It will teach us about the beauty and importance of biodiversity, provide a center for its scientific study, raise our consciousness about the myriad threats currently posed to nature, and spotlight brave and innovative efforts around the world to preserve and restore earth’s living patrimony.
The Darwin Project will also bring life in all its grandeur to downtown Boston. It will firmly set earth’s greatest jewel – biodiversity – into a new link in the Emerald Necklace.
©
2004 Boston Planning Institute All Rights Reserved |