A picture is worth a thousand words, they say. That may be true! Today we’re swamped with information. Images can say a lot with a little. That said, we’re in the digital revolution. So now we’re flooded with zillions of photos and memes. We like and tag images on social media. News websites have photos of current events. We share our own lives with selfies, food or pet pictures.

In today’s firehose of images are powerful stories about nature. Facts and figures are vital. But to connect with the widest audience we must nature’s story. Visual media are the most effective way to do that. Images transcend language. They evoke emotions in ways that words and data cannot. Human devastation, and our natural world’s fragility and beauty are best shown through biodiversity images like the ones you see here. Together they show human impacts on biodiversity, wildlife, the environment, and natural resources. Threats include global warming, deforestation, pollution and wildlife exploitation.

Help to tell the story of biodiversity

To help you share these stories, we’ve put together ten amazing images and graphics. We encourage you to share these images as widely as possible (including appropriate credit). It’s vital now more than ever to tell the story of biodiversity. It’s the only way we’re truly going to make a difference.

In all cases, we have strived to provide appropriate credit to the creators and copyright holders. Please contact us if you recognize an image and additional or alternative attribution is required.

The post The 10 Most Powerful Biodiversity Images appeared first on Biodiversity Professionals.

(Image courtesy of BBC.)

Do you know what the word “biodiversity” means?

In 2010, the UN Year of Biodiversity, the BBC conducted a survey. The survey showed that most people don’t know the meaning of “biodiversity.” Most people thought it was a type of laundry powder. Consider that in perspective. Biodiversity loss is the biggest problem facing us today, alongside global warming. Yet most people don’t even know what the word means. How many could actually give a definition? Given that lack of understanding, we can take hope. We surveyed the world’s languages. We found that most have their own word for “biodiversity.”

How to translate the word “biodiversity”

We used Google Translate to convert the word “biodiversity” into 103 languages. It’s impressive and heartening to realize that interest in biodiversity is truly global. We did find a few gaps! There were a few languages for which we couldn’t find an equivalent word. Do you know of the word for biodiversity in any of those languages? If so, please let us know in the comments, and we’ll add it to the list. Also, if you know of any language not in the list, please let us know. Either contact us, or write your comment below.

How to listen to the translated word for “biodiversity”

For non-native speakers of some of these languages, their word for biodiversity seems like a real tongue twister. If you want to hear how it’s pronounced, type “biodiversity” into the first window in Google Translate. Click the speaker icon below the translated word. You will hear the translated spoken word. (Not all languages have this feature.)

Original translation data

Click for the spreadsheet. Biodiversity translated into world languages

Please share this article to help raise global awareness of biodiversity.

List of words for biodiversity in 103 languages

Afrikaans – biodiversiteit
Albanian – biodiversiteti
Amharic – ብዝሃ ሕይወት
Arabic – التنوع البيولوجي
Armenian – Կենսաբազմազանություն
Azerbaijani – bioloji müxtəliflik
Bangla/Bengali – জীব বৈচিত্র্য
Basque – biodibertsitatea
Belarusian – біяразнастайнасці
Bosnian – biodiverzitet
Bulgarian – биологичното разнообразие
Burmese – ဇီဝမျိုးစုံမျိုးကွဲများ
Catalan – biodiversitat
Cebuano – biodiversidad
Chinese (Mandarin) – 生物多样性
Corsican – a biodiversità
Croatian – bioraznolikosti
Czech – biodiverzity
Danish – biodiversitet
Dutch – biodiversiteit
English – biodiversity
Esperanto – biodiverseco
Estonian – bioloogiline mitmekesisus
Filipino – biodiversity
Finnish – biodiversiteetti
French – biodiversité
Galacian – biodiversidade
Georgian – ბიომრავალფეროვნება
German – biodiversität
Greek – βιοποικιλότητα
Gujarati – જૈવવિવિધતા
Haitian Creole – divèsite biyolojik
Hausa – bambancin halittu
Hawaiian – nā meaola like’oleHebrew – המגוון הביולוגי
Hindi – जैव विविधता
Hmong – biodiversity
Hungarian – a biológiai sokféleség
Icelandic – líffræðileg fjölbreytileik
Igbo – Ụdị ndụ dị iche iche
Indonesian – keanekaragaman hayati
Irish – bithéagsúlacht
Italian – biodiversità
Japanese – 生物多様性
Javanese – keanekaragaman hayati
Kannada – ಜೀವವೈವಿಧ್ಯ
Kazakh – Биоәртүрлілік
Khmer – ជីវចំរុះ
Korean – 생물 다양성
Kurdish – biyanîparêz
Kyrgyz – биологиялык ар түрдүүлүк
Lao – ຊີວະນາໆພັນ
Latin – biodiversitatis
Latvian – bioloģiskā daudzveidība
Lithuanian – biologinė įvairovė
Luxembourgish – biodiversitéit
Macedonian – Биодиверзитет
Malagasy – harena voajanahary
Malay – biodiversitiMalayalam – ജൈവവൈവിദ്ധ്യം
Maltese – bijodiversità
Maori – te koiora
Marathi – जैवविविधता
Mongolian – Биологийн төрөл зүйл
Nepali – जैव विविधता
Norwegian – biologisk mangfold
Nyanja – zachilengedwe
Pashto – ژوندی تنوع
Persian – تنوع زیستی
Polish – różnorodności biologicznej
Portuguese – biodiversidade
Punjabi – ਜੀਵ ਵਿਭਿੰਨਤਾ
Romanian – biodiversitatea
Russian – биоразнообразия
Samoan – meaola eseese
Scottish Gaelic – bith-iomadachd
Serbian – Биодиверзитет
Shona – biodiversity
Sindhi – حياتي تنوع
Sinhala – ජෛව විවිධත්වය
Slovak – biodiverzita
Slovenian – biotske raznovrstnosti
Somali – kala duwanaanta bay’ada
Southern Sotho – mefuta-futa ea lihloliloeng
Spanish – biodiversidad
Sundanese – biodiversiti
Swahili – biodiversity
Swedish – biologiska mångfalden
Tajik – Гуногунии биологӣ
Tamil – பல்லுயிர்
Telugu – జీవవైవిధ్యం
Thai – ความหลากหลายทางชีวภาพ
Turkish – biyoçeşitlilik
Ukrainian – Біорізноманіття
Urdu – جیو ویو
Uzbek – bioxilma-xillik
Vietnamese – Đa dạng sinh học
Welsh – bioamrywiaeth
Western Frisian – biodiversity
Xhosa – eziphilayo
Yiddish – ביאָדיווערסיטי
Yoruba – oniruuru ipinsiyeleyele
Zulu – eziphilayo

Do these languages have a word for biodiversity?

Cambodian
Fiji
Quechua
Tatar
Tibetan
Tonga

The post The word for “biodiversity” in 103 different world languages appeared first on Biodiversity Professionals.

Citizen Science Coordinator Caitlin Kenney, a Student Conservation Association (SCA) intern, poses with an amphibian in the backcountry of Mount Rainier National Park. (Photo courtesy of NPS)

1. Citizen scientists help increase project reach

With the potential to amass millions of citizen scientists from around the globe, the amount of data that can be collected is unimaginable. Having so many individuals in the field at varying times may lead to exotic or innovative discoveries. “Enlisting input from a network of volunteer citizen scientists expands the reach of a project, sometimes beyond what scientists can imagine,” says National Geographic writer Karen de Seve.

2. Citizen science helps to stretch limited funding

Citizen scientists allow far greater amounts of data to be collected at little to no cost. Such economies of scale free up funds. Researchers have more time to be spent on data analysis. Andrea Korte reported in an AAAS article, “The work of the 2.3 million volunteer citizen scientists who contribute to biodiversity research have an economic value of up to $2.5 billion per year.”

3. Citizen scientists help raise local and governmental awareness

There’s no doubt that when enough people start to ask questions, others start to listen. Engaging citizens spreads the word of shrinking biodiversity. According to the European Environment Agency, “Involving people in monitoring gives them a basic understanding of the underlying threat to biodiversity…” Furthermore, such involvement “…can facilitate a willingness to contribute to solving the problem.” World-changing movements always start with people’s passionate interest in a problem. Impassioned citizen scientists have the power to alter the world around them. They can bring problems to the attention of people with the ability to enact change.

4. Citizen scientists may experience transformative learning

TD Jakes said it best, “There is nothing as powerful as a changed mind.” When an individual momentarily exits their busy lifestyle, taking time to study the world around them, what they learn can change their life. Many people are unaware of how their choices affect the world around them. The clothing they wear, the food they eat, their mode of transportation can all impact their local environment. A citizen scientist can help biodiversity by changing the way they live and inspiring those around them.

5. Citizen science can help to prevent extinctions

The loss of many species populations goes largely unnoticed until it is far too late. UCLA recently called for greater public participation in citizen science. According to their report, monitoring by citizen scientists can lead to “early detection of species decline.” Identifying a problem is the first step towards rectification. Training citizen scientists to participate in conservation research increases the efficiency of our work to protect biodiversity.

We see the potential for citizen science in such initiatives as Bioblitzes. Conservationists must now take advantage. Here is their opportunity to conduct more research—cheaper and faster—while at the same time connecting people across the world in a common purpose. We, as members of the human race, all share the responsibility to be stewards of our planet’s biodiversity for economic, aesthetic and moral reasons. Climate is changing. Human population is increasing. Cities expand while species vanish into extinction. It is now more important now than ever to take action.

The post 5 Reasons Citizen Science Can Help To Save Biodiversity appeared first on Biodiversity Professionals.

The students are organizing a teach-in, the Miss Martha Biodiversity Project, to honor Martha, the very last Passenger Pigeon who died on September 1, 1914 in the Cincinnati Zoo.

The National Biodiversity Teach-In is a multi-class project, being held September 21-27, 2014. The purpose of the event is to raise national awareness of the importance of biodiversity and its protection, with the ultimate goal of having President Obama proclaim 2014 the “Year of the Passenger Pigeon”.

Student Chairs Karla, Sarah, Abbey and Miranda plan to reach this goal by organizing informational webinars, field experiences and volunteer opportunities.

The students are looking for help from scientists, educators, artists and media professionals to support their efforts. The students are open to any ideas but are looking for your help:

• Do you have expertise in any aspect of Biodiversity and can provide a webinar?
• Are you willing to organize a field experience at a local nature center to highlight the vast and unique biodiversity of your region?
• Could you organize an event in which volunteers could help protect or enhance biodiversity?
• Are you an artist, an author, a poet or a musician who could organize an event or activity to highlight the importance of biodiversity for inspiring creativity?

The students are looking mainly for two possible activities:

1) Presenters to provide webinars during the week of September 22-26th on any biodiversity topic. The organizers want the webinars to last 60 minutes and to be aimed at a student audience, otherwise it is left up to you. The presenter can select the date, the time, length, the topic and the audience. The webinar service that will allow for 3000 participants and also for interaction via Q and A. If you already have a cool presentation for pre-k through first graders you could present that and the school will advertise the webinar to those age groups. If you find little kids a bit scary, and you want to present to high school students or adults, that is fine too.

2) Educators to offer biodiversity experiences through out the country. You could host an onsite hike or talk about your projects or research on Sunday, September 21 or Saturday, September 27th. This event could be anything related to biodiversity, such as stewardship opportunities, nature hikes or photography. The organizers’ vision for these two days is to get people out and enjoying the biodiversity in their communities.

The website is offering interested organizations a listing on their Resource Page.

For more details about the students’ project, visit their website http://nationalbiodiversityteachin.com/

Here’s the contact information for any questions or to let the students know how you can support their projects.
Elgin High School
Environmental Science Program
1200 Maroon Drive
Elgin, Illinois 60120
847-888-5100 ext 8160

Contact: Deb Perryman, email: debbieperryman@u-46.org
Facebook: Miss Martha The Passenger Pigeon
Twitter: @MissMartha1914

The post Participate in the National Biodiversity Teach-in appeared first on Biodiversity Professionals.