How to save the world? A global journey into making our lives better…

Cloned cattle have been the subject of some recent front-page coverage in Europe^[1a] [1b]. Meat from cloned animals has also been approved by FDA for human consumption two years ago^[2]. With this come the usual heard arguments: the pro-cloning parties say that there is no difference between a clone and its “parent” (or sibling?), in which they are right on a purely genetic point of view, and they go on saying that the Earth resources are limited (correct), and that we need to feed everybody (true but how to save the world from hunger is subject to discussion). Those against cloning point out that the long-term implication have not been tested (true as well), that cloned animals have a very high rate of abnormality (correct^[3]) and implies significant levels of cruelty to animals (correct^[3]).

But besides all of those perfectly valid albeit slightly passionate arguments I’d like to bring one which is not heard often, and the implications of which are rarely made plain enough. It is a cold, logical and scientific argument linked to the survival of the fittest theory from Darwin. But first, let’s take lessons from a troubled period of our history.

When the first humans arrived in the Philippines thousands of years ago they found a group of 7,000 islands remarkably rich in natural resources. The seas where inhabited by the globe’s most diverse communities, providing an abundant source of food throughout the year. The land was covered almost entirely by rain forest that provided them with food, building materials and seemingly everlasting supplies of clear, fresh drinking water.

Few countries in the world were originally more thoroughly covered by rainforest than the Philippines: Brazil has extensive savannah and brush, Indonesia has many dry islands, Kenya and Tanzania have only small patches of rainforest…

Because the sea around the Philippines is very deep, no path were open for wildlife to cross during ice ages, when the sea levels were lower. This resulted in a country that has more unique species acre for acre than anywhere else in the world. More than 510 species of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians exist nowhere else in the world. As a point of comparison, Brazil, often referred to as the “storehouse of biodiversity”, has only 50% more unique species whilst being 28 times larger.