No one has ever completed a total inventory of life forms in a patch of ground bigger than a suburban backyard. Human laziness worldwide has more to do with it than lagging technology. Such sloth in the Smokies is somewhat understandable. Only 10,000 have been identified. And the logic that applies to the Great Smoky, America's most popular national park by far, with 9.9 million visitors per year, applies equally well to the planet.
Biologists use the term biodiversity to describe the earth's stunning variety.
Science has cataloged only a tiny fraction some 1.75 million of them. Such ignorance may not be immediately lethal to humans, but its ultimate cost could prove high. Already in many parts of the globe, from southern California to Germany's industrial heartlands to Brazil's Atlantic coast, habitats have been altered beyond recognition. Possible life-changing discoveries may well be at stake, in the Smokies and beyond. Even though bioprospecting for anti-tumor drugs is always a long shot, no one knows what minuscule wonders the planet is losing forever.