by Russell A. Mittermeier, Norman Myers, and Cristina G. Mittermeier

About the authors: Russell A. Mittermeier is president of Conservation International, an environmentalist organization. Norman Myers is an Oxford University ecologist and the author of The Sinking Ark and other works. Cristina G. Mittermeier is a marine biologist and coauthor of Megadiversity: Earth’s Biologically Wealthiest Nations.

As we all know, our planet is suffering from a variety of environmental ills, with issues like global warming, ozone layer depletion, toxic chemical emissions, acid rain, erosion, land degradation, air, soil, and water pollution, and a variety of other issues making news on a daily basis. These so-called “brown” environmental issues are a focus of attention because they are immediately and directly evident to us and relatively easy...