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This is more or less the statistical spine of the otherwise floppy media.

This nine-minute episode focuses on global species extinction rates

and was broadcast on the BBC World Service.

Hello and welcome to more or less on the BBC World Service.

20 years ago, at the Earth Summit in Rio, 172 governments met to debate global warming.

They also opened a convention, now signed by 193 nations,

to protect the world's biological diversity.

Choosing a name for it was pretty easy.

It's called the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Actually, protecting diversity has, of course, proved to be a lot more difficult.

You know, the dodo, the Falkland Islands Wolf, the Golden Toad.

Although they were all extinct before the Convention on Biological Diversity was created,

more relevant examples are the Pyrenean Ibex and the Bayji River Dolphin.

Ah, Ruth Alexander's here.

Just when I thought you were extinct, Ruth.

Anyway, thanks. Yes, the Bayji River Dolphin, the Pyrenean Ibex, the Panda.

Panda's under extinct.

It's just a matter of time, isn't it?

They've got it coming, ridiculously impractical creatures.

...