Though largely unexplored, the world’s biodiversity is a wealth of resources that is being steadily destroyed, said two-time Pulitzer Prize winner E.O. Wilson in his speech Thursday at the Memorial Union.

Wilson, a Harvard biology professor, was the 33rd speaker in the series of Paul L. Errington Memorial Lectures. Errington was a naturalist and animal ecologist at Iowa State University.

Wilson said to an audience of more than 1,000 attendants that much of the earth has been destroyed since the Mesolithic Era.

According to a NASA study, five percent of the earth’s surface is burned each year, Wilson said.

“There has been a 17-percent loss of arable land causing a mass extinction of the species,” Wilson said.

Wilson then gave a “melancholy description” of the species that have gone extinct or are endangered. Many of which come from Hawaii, the “extinction capital of the United States,” the southwest, the pacific coast area and Florida.

These areas, called hot spots, have the most numbers of endangered species county by county, he said.

“Biodiversity is the creation of the totality of genetics, a variation of all organisms in the world collectively,” Wilson said.

It creates an array of ecosystems and a causal network of explanation, he said.

Wilson said that extinction and survivalship are different for each group. For example, insects make up half of the total species.

One of the main problems is that so little is known about biodiversity, Wilson said. “We live on a very poorly-explored planet,” he said.

The bulk of biodiversity is concentrated in the tropical rain forests which are constantly being destroyed. The rain forests make up only 6 percent of the world’s surface — which is down 50 percent since humanity, Wilson said.

Not only is the world’s biodiversity being destroyed before it can be explored, it is also very difficult to study, he said.

Wilson said the tree canopies are extremely hard to explore because they are very difficult to reach. Scientists have to be suspended in cages from cranes due to the spines that stick out, the killer wasps, biting ants and other restraints.

“I can assure you that Tarzan would not have lasted 30 minutes in there,” Wilson said.

There needs to be more interest in exploring the world’s biodiversity, he said. There are several reasons to be concerned about the destruction of biodiversity, one of which is that when a habitat is reduced, so are the species in it.

“The wealth from biodiversity is enormous,” Wilson added.

Another reason is one of utilitarian value, he said, such as medicinal purposes. Medicine has been found that nearly cures leukemia and Hodgkin’s disease, antibiotics, immunosuppresants and some anti-cancer medicines.

Very useful national resources can be found, such as new crops, fiber sources and petroleum substitutes, and efforts need to be made to preserve our wealth, Wilson said.

“If 2 percent of the world were set aside for preservation, it would be an enormous step forward,” he said.