Article: The dying art of sorting and naming the living planet ; As taxonomy declines, so does our ability to understand the world

CAROL KAESUK YOON
International Herald Tribune
08-13-2009
The dying art of sorting and naming the living planet ; As taxonomy declines, so does our ability to understand the world
Byline: CAROL KAESUK YOON
Type: News

Taxonomy is declining, and we should be up in arms. Without the power to order and name life, a person simply does not know how to live in the world, how to understand it.

One spring when I was a graduate student, I would go each Monday down into the bowels of the entomology building. There I would meet Prof. Jack Franclemont, an elderly gentleman always with little dog in tow, to be tutored in the ordering and naming of life -- the science of taxonomy.
Professor Franclemont, a ...

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