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?:abstract
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Systematic biology is fundamental for providing organized information about the living world It clarifies what organisms share our planet, and it also reveals the basic short-term and long-term processes that have given rise to this diversity Human society is rapidly modernizing, largely through increased digital communications tied closely to satellite innovations Communication is now global and instantaneous, allied with an awareness of place made possible by global positioning technology Despite many positive recent developments, numerous tensions remain that threaten a tranquil world order and negatively impact biodiversity, such as between developed and developing countries, democratic and authoritarian governments, and among religious groups The increasing human population is also bringing pressures to bear on global biodiversity through activities that result in air and water pollution, topsoil erosion, deforestation, ozone depletion, global warming, and taxic loss The systematic biology community has been unable to respond effectively to these many new challenges due to fragmentation and lack of cohesion Systematists have tended to focus more on issues relevant to their own taxonomic groups (e g , bacteria, ferns, fungi, reptiles, mammals, etc ) and much less on global concerns Systematists must become better organized to allow the global priority of inventorying the planet to be achieved as soon as practicable A global organization, an International Federation for Systematic Biology, should be formed to serve as a coordinator to help articulate five-year and longer plans Large-scale funding (billions of dollars) must be sought to allow implementation of shared goals Projects must be created that more obviously connect in some fashion to major societal problems such as poverty, water resources, food production, and human health The astronomy and nuclear physics communities provide models of successful planning and implementation, the former on understanding the extreme distant reality of our existence, and the latter on the extremely small atomic dimensions Systematic biology focuses largely on understanding the middle range of reality that we can see and more easily directly experience Making the case for understanding at this level should, in principle, be the easiest of all Fundamental is that projects be simple in concept, visionary in perspective, and offering economic stimulus for participants (i e , the creation of new jobs)
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