Why should we care? What difference does it make if some species are extinguished, if even half of all the
species on earth disappear? Let me count the ways. New sources of scientific information will be lost. Vast
potential biological wealth will be destroyed. Still undeveloped medicines, crops, pharmaceuticals, timber, fibers,
pulp, soil-restoring vegetation, petroleum substitutes, and other products and amenities will never come to light.
It is fashionable in some quarters to wave aside the small and obscure, the bugs and weeds, forgetting that an
obscure moth from Latin America saved Australia's pastureland from overgrowth by cactus, that the rosy
periwinkle provided the cure for Hodgkin's disease and childhood lymphocytic leukemia, that the bark of the
Pacific yew offers hope for victims of ovarian and breast cancer, that a chemical from the saliva of leeches
dissolves blood clots during surgery, and so on down a roster already grown long and illustrious despite the
limited research addressed to it.
Which techniques does Wilson use in this excerpt to convey important information to his readers?
O Wilson uses humorous anecdotes that make the information more interesting.
Wilson uses metaphors that appeal to a wide range of the reader's senses.
Wilson relates the significance of the information directly to the reader's life.
Wilson refers to empirical statistics to relate the importance of his message.