Opinion: We have only one planet, and it is speaking to us

SEATTLE TIMES

May 15, 2019

By Alejandro Grajal and Robert W. Davidson
Special to The Times

Everyone deserves the opportunity to share in the wonder of nature, but the fact is that many species around the world need our help. The United Nations last week released urgent and sobering findings from a three-year research project forecasting the extinction of nearly 1 million animal and plant species due to climate change and human impacts to the environment.

In the report, 450 scientists sounded the alarm and clearly described the impending extinction crisis. It is hard not to feel overwhelmed and even paralyzed by what seems to be a global disaster that none of us can avert. As leaders of two of the region’s best-known cultural institutions focused on conserving the environment — Seattle Aquarium and Woodland Park Zoo — we feel it is vitally important, at what feels like an especially dark moment in time, to stress that we are not too late to act.

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