An Interesting Viewpoint on Biodiversity

I ran across this blog entry by Steven Dubner on the Freakonomics site. I find it fascinating since it runs contrary to "received opinion". I always enjoy it when the obvious truth of a politicized group ends up not being so obvious and not so truthful:

Biodiversity Is Always a Goal, Right?
By Stephen J. Dubner

Apparently not. Consider this interesting passage from The Revenge of Gaia: Earth’s Climate Crisis and the Fate of Humanity, by James Lovelock:

Stable unchanging climates lasting for several thousand years tend to reduce diversity, but when the climate changes to either hotter or colder by a small amount the first response is an increase in biodiversity. This is because the new conditions give rare species a chance to flourish while the established ones have not had time to decline … [I]t is important to keep in mind that biodiversity and environmental quality are not simply proportional … So rich biodiversity is not necessarily something highly desirable and to be preserved at all costs.

This is a very different view of biodiversity than one gleans from most sources, and keep in mind that this is not the view of some nature-hater. Lovelock is the renowned British climate scientist who refers to himself as “a planetary physician,” bent on stopping humans from killing the Earth.