We live on the only planet known to support human life. Yet despite all our technological sophistication, we still struggle to fully understand—or appreciate—the intricate web of relationships that keeps it functioning. This is especially true when it comes to biodiversity. Too often, we reduce it to a numbers game: how many species exist, how many are endangered. But what if we thought of biodiversity instead as an invisible infrastructure—as vital to life as air or water?

In a recent conversation with Nate Hagens, ecologist Thomas Crowther explores the critical importance of biodiversity, the interconnectedness of natural systems, and the global effort to restore degraded ecosystems. He explains how biodiversity underpins all life and economic activity—and why its loss may pose an even greater threat than climate change.

Biodiversity, Crowther argues, is not just a catalog of species, but a dynamic, living network—millions of interactions among organisms and their environments, sustaining life in ways we’re only beginning to understand. And ecological restoration, he emphasizes, is also about equity: who has access to land, to knowledge, and to the opportunity to participate in the healing process.

"Some people say 40% or 50% of the economy is dependent on biodiversity. I say that's absolute nonsense—clearly 100% of the economy is dependent on biodiversity. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for biodiversity."

"Individual trees come and go all the time, but the forest system is what sustains—the forest ecosystem is what stores carbon for millions of years. Some are dying and some are growing and taking in more carbon as they grow, and the net is a storage of carbon, exactly in the same way that your cells are dying and then regrowing and your system is maintained. The forest is the same emergent property of this collective of organisms."

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