The cost of saving a species

拯救一个物种的成本

The Indicator from Planet Money

2025-09-09

9 分钟
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Animals are going extinct at an alarmingly fast rate, largely due to human activity. Same for plants. This is bad for all kinds of reasons, not least of which is that breakthrough drugs often come from nature. But there isn’t consensus on how to save these species. Part of the debate asks the economic question: with limited money going to the work, where will it have the most impact? Today on the show, the cost-effective plan to maximize biodiversity that asks ecologists to approach the question more like economists. Related episodes: The Habitat Banker The echo of the bison Savings birds with economics For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.   Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
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  • NPR. The Splendid Poison Frog, the Yangtze River Dolphin, the Maui Akipa Songbird.

  • These are all animals that went extinct over the last couple of decades.

  • Those are sounds our grandchildren won't hear,

  • and it could even mean that medicines never get discovered.

  • Yeah,

  • Osempic was developed after a chance discovery with venom from the Gila monster lizard and that lizard is near threatened.

  • Hugh Possingham is a scientist at the University of Queensland in Australia and Hugh says these extinctions are largely due to human activity.

  • We are in a mass extinction and the rate at which species are going extinct is roughly 100 times the normal rate.

  • So if you're wondering how to help,

  • what kind of donation or policy would have the most impact, Huw actually has an answer.

  • He has a way to maximize biodiversity.

  • This is The Indicator from Planet Money.

  • I'm Whelan Wong.

  • And I'm Darian Woods.

  • Today on the show, cost-effective conservation.

  • Huw challenges ecologists to think more like economists.

  • And we meet some incredibly cute tortoise hatchlings on a tropical island.

  • Don't we, can't we?

  • If you want to learn how to save species cheaply, Hugh Possingham's your guy.

  • My life is very complicated on 31 boards and committees outside my day job.