Nature has a new Noah’s Ark moment at the biodiversity summit (commentary)

Delegates from most of the world's governments are convening this week in Yerevan, Armenia for the CBD COP17 summit, which aims to prevent the extinction of various species and promote sustainable and equitable land use. This summit is held at a fitting location – Mount Ararat, where the biblical Noah's Ark landed after the great flood and where Noah released the animals it had carried, two by two.

Genesis 8 states, "But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. Then God said to Noah, 'Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you — the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground — so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.'"

In the thousands of years since, the environment appears to have greater need of rescue than ever before. As a lifelong environmentalist, the reporter has never witnessed a time when global politicians seem to care less about nature than they do currently. The U.S. Government, once a leader in environmental protection, is currently part of a political assault on nature.