What does WWF do?
Simply put: we're in the business of saving our one and only planet.
But at its core essence, it is in fact true. We like the planet we have. We love the life that lives on it. And we want to make sure that it's there for you to see next year, and in 5 years, and 10, and for your children... and for your grandchildren.
What's keeping us up at night...
...is the fear is that if we humans keep on going the way we have been going, then the things that take our breath away, the things that make our jaws drop, the things that we are astounded by... will not be there for much longer... they will have gone, disappeared, sayanara.
So what does WWF do about that?
We are finding ways that allow us, the increasing numbers of "us", to live with what we have.
The tigers. The great apes. The giant pandas.
To stop crowding them out.
To work out ways in which we can both survive.
Without eating it, hunting it or hustling it out of its home to the point where it doesn't exist anymore.
To the point where we call it extinct.
You can rightly question the need to "preserve"
Do we and should we maintain the status quo?
After all, life changes over time. There is evolution. Nothing ever quite stays the same and species do go extinct naturally for one reason or another.
The question is what is "natural" and what is "human induced" change? To what extent are our increasing human numbers, our increasing demands on this planet, affecting its very existence?
Are we making it unstable and possibly one day unlivable?
Even if you are cynical about the need to maintain the magnificent diversity of life on Earth, you still need to survive. You still want your children to survive. And to survive, we need a planet.
A healthy one.
And critical to that health is its diversity of life. The processes and forms and functions. Every living creature is part of a chain, and if you break the chain, things start to collapse, life breaks down.
Think a planet can survive on man's ingenuity alone?
Just take a look at how clever we've been when we take on the role of mother nature...
Sure, we're smart. Yes we're ingenious. No argument that we're often able to adapt, invent and circumvent. But if our life support system fails then we are lost.
And believe us, in this life support system there are ecological pipes, biological connections, and organic leads, levers and pulleys with connections to things you wouldn't believe. Things we don't even know about. Think: butterfly wings in Brazil causing cyclones in Texas (chaos theory).
Fact is, we are playing a card game when we don't fully appreciate the stakes.
And we don't fully know all the players.
And we only have the one hand.
No second chance here folks.
So what is WWF doing about this?
We're getting to know the odds.
To know the players.
To know how each interacts with other.
We then carefully choose where we get involved to make the biggest wins, the greatest advances in the shortest time... because time is of the essence.
We have had plenty of successes.
And we are always learning, adapting and applying.
But with your help: your time, your words, your commitment. Then we can make a formidable team. We can win more and more. Achieve bigger, greater, lasting things.
And our hopes will grow that we can indeed keep on living with the magnificent diversity of life that is intrinsic to our life on this one, big, beautiful, green and blue orb we call home.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you your one, your only, incredibly amazing, astoundingly stunning planet Earth.
(cue drumroll)
