We're funding 28,000+ species assessments with @IUCN to help protect biodiversity: https://t.co/wGteGwkSku pic.twitter.com/rOO0NUnMbL
— ToyotaGB (@ToyotaGB) May 10, 2016
In the mid-1700's, botanist Johann Georg Siegesbeck wrote a scathing denouncement of Carolus Linnaeus for his use of flowers to categorize, well... flora. What could be wrong with that?
In typical 18th-century puritanical fashion, Siegesbeck believed it was immoral to talk about the reproductive organs of plants.
Linnaeus thought he was a grumpy old jerk.
And, since Linnaeus is the father of modern taxonomy, he did what any scientist would do. He named the nastiest, smelliest, most unpleasant weed he could think of "Siegesbeckia." The name is used by biologists to this very day.
New species of plant, animal, and fungus are still being discovered, and categorized under the taxonomic system created by Linnaeus centuries ago, and the discoverers of these species get to name them. Unfortunately, much of the planet's biodiversity is being lost, and species are going extinct at a faster rate than we are finding them.
To protect the ability of future biologists to name stinky plants after people they hate, Toyota is stepping in and donating grant money to the International Union for Conservation of Nature -- an organization dedicated to assessing threats of extinction faced by thousands of species.
With help from Toyota, the IUCN will be able to add at least 28,000 more species to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in the next five years. The list acts as a "barometer of life," and allows conservationists to enact better-informed policies that can help protect biodiversity.
Future scientists, visit our showroom at DCH Freehold Toyota to find cleaner, greener new vehicles for sale that can help reduce your carbon footprint, stave off climate change, and protect both known, and yet-undiscovered (and unnamed) creatures.
