Journalist and author Juha Kauppinen for his work, Monimuotoisuus – kertomuksia katoamisista (Diversity – tales of extinction).
Juha Kauppinen’s book, Monimuotoisuus, presses the reader to consider mankind’s role and relationship with biodiversity. Today, the greatest threat to biodiversity is human behaviour, thoughtlessness and lack of knowledge, which has also turned us into an endangered species.
In his book, Kauppinen guides the reader through Finnish nature via six kinds of key species. These species – the yellow-breasted bunting, the Siberian jay, the large scabious mining bee, meesia longiseta moss, the trout and the glacier crowfoot – are of such value to their habitats that their extinctions could affect the ecosystems and vitality of dozens of other species.
When Kauppinen speaks of extinction, he is not referring directly to the extinction of certain rare species but to the disappearance of normality. The fact that nature as we are used to seeing it is disappearing.
According to Kauppinen, it would not be difficult to save biodiversity. It is simply a matter of how well people understand the interrelations between different ecosystems and the natural habitats of different species.
Marshlands, forests, rivers, meadows and wetlands, as well as thickets, puddles and every type of wasteland, assume a new, much stronger significance as a result of this reading experience.
Photo: Jaakko Lukumaa.
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