Scientists often say that 99.9% of all species that have lived are now extinct. So why should we be concerned about extinctions today? Let's say the average species is expected to exist for about ten million years. Then what does it mean when an entire order of animals is collapsing within a timeframe of a hundred years? What does it mean when extinctions are happening at 1,000 times the rate of the recent fossil record? And what does it mean when scientists tell us that they estimate that by 2100, half of all the species in the world will be gone?
We wade upriver, our lamps shining in unison as the next frog calls or the next stick breaks. Frogs with brilliant yellow spots, amber bodies, red eyes. In all, so far, we find eight species.
Night is a lovely place to consider big questions about our world; every detail remains in darkness except for what we momentarily hold in focus. I am focused on this: why are the frogs dying? Is the golden frog really extinct? And, can we deduce any sort of real wisdom about the world by peering into the brilliant eyes of a glass frog?
A green katydid rests on a leaf in a tree above a river in El Valle de Antón.
A green katydid rests on a leaf in a tree above a river in El Valle de Antón.
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