A Call for the Discovery of ALL Life Forms on Earth
If we discovered life on another planet, the first thing we would do is conduct a systematic inventory of that planet's life. This is something we have never done on our home planet. The aim of the All Species Inventory is simple: within the span of our own generation, record and genetically sample every living species of life on Earth. This audacious goal will be accomplished by using one billion or more dollars of philanthropic wealth to fund and train a network of local collectors and naturalists throughout the world, and to employ the latest in information technology to manage this surge of bio-information.
What we'll get from the All Species Inventory
1. It will give us, for the first time, a complete list of "who is here," the roster of our fellow inhabitants.
2. It will provide a reliable baseline for counting populations and determining endangered species.
3. It will form the foundation for developing a complete genome of all life, and a new understanding of nature.
4. It will uncover multitudes of new species, many of which will have immediate cultural and economic impacts.
5. It will train many people as naturalists and scientists, who can leverage these skills further in their own lives and that of society.
6. It will distribute wealth from the developed world to far corners of the Earth by employing indigenous and native observers and collectors. At the present time, scientific estimates of the number of living species on Earth, including microbes, range from 1.4 million to 200 million. This laughable range means we are simply clueless about the number, let alone types, of living creatures on Earth.
The Internet Archive has a saved version of Kevin Kelly's All Species Foundation site from the early 2000s. The project had an amazingly audacious vision and a team of world-class advisors, but was built on dot-com-era funding which basically collapsed after 2000. Good to see efforts such as the Encyclopedia of Life and the Census of Marine Life carry the vision forward, though neither are driven by the All Species Foundation's bottom-up vision of a worldwide "network of local collectors and naturalists."
