The donor community and conservation movement are leaning increasingly towards a ‘what can nature do for us’ approach, where species and wild habitats are valued and prioritized according to the services they provide for people. This has made it increasingly difficult for conservationists to protect the most threatened species on the planet. We have an important moral and ethical decision to make: Do these species have a right to survive or do we have a right to drive them to extinction?Jonathan Bailie, conservation director at the Zoological Society of London • In a new report, “Priceless or Worthless?”, listing the top 100 most endangered species in the world. The list was compiled by 8,000 experts on behalf of the Zoological Society of London and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The group also noted that, although these 100 face the most imminent threat of extinction, thousands of other species currently face extinction as well. source
Preserving Pearl Harbor Documents
Service jacket and salvaged service record, with Navy envelope, of William Wells. Wells enlisted at Kansas City, Mo. on Jan. 1, 1940, and died Dec. 7, 1941, at Pearl Harbor after achieving the rank of Signalman 3rd class. Also lost that day was his brother, Raymond Virgil Wells. They were one of 23 sets of brothers on the Arizona who died that day.
One of the most important decisions a conservator can make is not how to complete a treatment, but when NOT to treat. An important example of this can be found in the records salvaged from the U.S.S. Arizona after it was bombed on Dec. 7, 1941. These service records, which were held one level below the main deck, were not submerged in water but were subjected to heat, fire, and high humidity. Salvaged by the Navy and sealed in envelopes which contained the damaged documents, the records came to NARA in the 1950s and are now housed at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.
Note: This is the first in a series of posts on conservation of Pearl Harbor documents.
This has to be amongst the coolest Tumblrs we didn’t know about. A tumblr from the National Archives about preserving historical letters and such? That’s awesome!
» Why is this a big deal, anyway? Well, one thing to keep in mind is that having a rich environment has its own economic benefits. So-called “ecosystem services,” which provide such things as clean drinking water and pest control, are worth $33 trillion a year, according to Birdlife International ornithologist Stuart Butchart. He says that ignoring the environment could be the equivalent of losing seven percent of the global GDP. Wow.
Copyright 2009-2013 Ernie Smith • Ask us stuff! • E-mail us • Follow us on Twitter • Follow us on Facebook
