Why does the author compare nature to business?

Nature is like business. Business sense dictates that we guard our capital and live from the interest. Nature’s capital is the enormous diversity of the living things. Without it, we cannot free ourselves of illness or provide industry with the raw materials for wealth creation . Professor Edward Wilson, of Harvard university says, “The folly our descendants are least likely to forgive us is the ongoing loss of genetic & species diversity. This will take millions of years to correct” Only 150 plant species have ever been widely cultivated. Yet over 75,000 edible plants are known in the wild. In a hungry world, with a population growing by 90 million each year, so much wasted potential is tragic. Medicines from the wild are worth around 40 billions dollar a year. Over 5000 species are known to yield chemical with cancer fighting potential. Scientist currently estimate that total number of species in the world is between 10 – 3 0 million with only around 1.4 million identified .The web of life is torn when mankind exploits natural resources in short – sighted ways . The trade in tropical hardwoods can destroy whole forest to extract just a few commercially attractive specimens. Bad agricultural practice triggers 24 billion tones of top soil erosion a year losing the equivalent of 9 million tones of grain output. Cutting this kind of unsuitable exploitation & instituting “sustainable utilization “will help turn the environmental crisis around.