Biodiversity is integral to life on earth. The loss of any one species due to climate change, loss of habitat, or hunting, impacts other species within a given ecosystem. No individual species is more or less important than another, but part of a larger order.

Inspired by a visit to the Beaty Biodiversity Museum in Vancouver during a cross-Canada trip, the painting shows the beauty and variety of life on earth. The creatures depicted move across the panels, from fish to reptiles & amphibians, to birds, to mammals, from locations all over the planet. Some are endangered, some threatened, while many are common and listed as species of least concern. Most, however, are declining in number or facing challenges due to loss of habitat and climate change. Remember - humans are animals on earth, but also a species changing dynamics and altering everything down to geology (the Anthropocene).

This diptych on panel comes with a numbered index and legend providing species names, location, and conservation status.

“having freed ourselves from the constraints of evolution, humans nevertheless remain dependent on the earth’s biological and geochemical systems. By disrupting these systems—cutting down tropical rainforests, altering the composition of the atmosphere, acidifying the oceans—we’re putting our own survival in danger.” 
― Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History