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Excerpts;
The decline of linguistic and cultural diversity is linked to the loss of biodiversity, a study has suggested.
The authors said that 70% of the world’s languages were found within the planet’s biodiversity hotspots. Data showed that as these important environmental areas were degraded over time, cultures and languages in the area were also being lost.
…One thing that a lot of biologists and ecologists are now seeing is that people are part of these ecosystems…
Co-occurrence of linguistic and biological diversity in biodiversity hotspots and high biodiversity wilderness areas, Original Study, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences-PNAS
As the world grows less biologically diverse, it is becoming less linguistically and culturally diverse as well. Biologists estimate annual loss of species at 1,000 times or more greater than historic rates, and linguists predict that 50–90% of the world’s languages will disappear by the end of this century. Prior studies indicate similarities in the geographic arrangement of biological and linguistic diversity, although conclusions have often been constrained by use of data with limited spatial precision.
