Biodiversity ~ knowing it before it’s gone.

Today is International Day for Biological Diversity. I know I’d be wasting my time trying to talk to a three year old about ‘Biodiversity’. Thankfully, you don’t actually need to talk about something to learn about it.

I had planned to take Little Eco on an ‘expedition’ to see if we could find a threatened plant that was recorded ‘on top of sea cliff south of Newcastle Beach’ by botanist and conservationist L.A.S Johnson in 1953, and as far as I’m aware it hasn’t been recorded there since.

Little Eco wasn’t overly excited about the expedition, but once I drew a map, suggested she be ‘Dora’ and our dog be ‘Boots’ she was in. As soon as we got out of the car it absolutely bucketed down, so after wandering around in the rain for a little while, we gave up and had hot chips overlooking the beach instead.

We tried again in the afternoon. The sun was almost peeping through the clouds, but as soon as we reached the plants headland habitat (which is recognised as a threatened ecological community), it started raining again!

We wandered around in the rain for a while, and once soaked through, gave up and came home to read Leaf Litter by Rachel Tonkin*.

If this book doesn’t teach kids about Biodiversity nothing will. I love that it tells it how it is:

“The smell of a dead blue-tongued lizard attracts buzzing blowflies. They lay hundreds of eggs that hatch into tiny maggots, which burrow into the rotting lizard and gobble it up”.

Anyway, I was going to write a meaningful post about biodiversity and the current extinction crisis, focusing on what it means for us**, and lamenting that even our children don’t care. But given that I’ve just finished reading the rather depressing Requiem for a Species, the pessimist in me has decided nobody would read it anyway, so I’ve decided to go to bed instead.

P.S. Tomorrow is World Turtle Day. Why not do a turtle activity or two with your kids?

P.S.S. If your in Newcastle, don't forget Raid My Wardrobe is on tomorrow (Sunday).

*helpful teaching notes for Leaf Litter can be found here.
**Full report here: Global Biodiversity Outlook 3.