In 1859 in the Origin of Species, Darwin described a connexion between the survival of red clover (Trifolium pratense) and the frequency of single women based on the consequences of natural selection and in the last paragraph of his book described the immense, equally interconnected variety of plants and animals on "an entangled bank clothed with many plants etc...". This balance between selection and extinction is the key to biodiversity. We would do well to remember that now and in the future, particularly since the selective effects of the activities of Homo sapiens on the natural world have proved so devastating. An assessment of the consequences of selection by mankind on the rest of the living world shows it to have been largely adverse. Of especial importance are the effects of exploitation on the structure and, especially, the largely unknown, invisible effects on the biology of soil. Even where mankind has attempted to improve his lot, namely with domesticated crops and stock, "progress" has, too often, carried the seeds of its own destruction. We still need to know more about the ways in which mankind damages his environment and to continue to worry about biodiversity loss and extinction. But, more important, we need both to record what the earth possesses now as well as how lost biodiversity can be restored and increased. The former requires internationally agreed documentation of the living world. IOPI and Species 2000 are two such attempts. In the UK the projected National Biodiversity Network will seek to maintain that record. Research into Restoration Ecology, often neglected, should provide the tools to retain and recover what is at risk. Above all, much of mankind, notably its leaders, still needs to be educated to the view that the riches and abundance of nature are not infinite and must be conserved.