Conservation biology and the endarkenment.

Frederik Dalerum (2014) has nicely summarized what many of us consider the basic question of how conservation biologists should allocate their time in trying to deal with the existential threat to human civilization. How much should we devote to our usual activities—to research that may provide better insights into ways to preserve Earth’s biodiversity, or to promoting local or regional actions that will slow the rate of population and species extinctions? Alternatively, how much should we focus on communicating with the general public and taking action to move society onto a course that might avoid a collapse; that is, to addressing the underlying causes of the extinction crisis?