For all its importance, biodiversity turns out to be another one of those ideas that humans can’t be trusted with.

As reported by the BBC, today (22 Jan 06) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4635330.stm there is about to be a massive cull of grey squirrels in the name of biodiversity. Grey squirrels are suddenly not just a threat to red squireels and tress but to hedgehogs. And they must be killed.

This seems to completely ignore the clear fact that the biggest threat to biodiversity is us – human beings. We brought the grey squirrels in the first place. There are very many ways to address the loss of red squirrels – including protecting the locations where indigenous creatures thrive; stopping turning their habitats into housing and road developments; or doing less poisoning of the countryside – all of which would be inconvenient for at least some of us. Killing grey squirrels is only inconvenient for them, and they don’t exactly have votes.

The killing approach represents a common “solution” to loss of diversity. Badgers swing from being a protected species to being “cullable” because they are allegedely killing hedgehogs (Guardian 21 Jan) or spreading TB. The survival of badgers is in itself a miracle but they are cute enough to have human supporters. Grey squirrels are also cute so they may have some chance. Uncute unfurry animals and insects and plants that don’t make good soft toys have very little chance.

Surely solutions to encouraging biodiversity – where it involves undoing human damage that has limited species numbers – must be more sophisticated than handing out death sentences.