In this episode of Live Sustainably, Anastasia unpacks the true meaning of biodiversity — not just forests and endangered species, but the intricate connections between all forms of life on Earth.

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From wild potatoes preserving food security to fungi on sloth fur inspiring new antibiotics, this episode reveals how biodiversity directly impacts our health, medicine, climate, and future.

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This episode explores:

• How food diversity protects us from hunger and malnutrition

• Why biodiversity loss increases the risk of global disease

• How kelp forests outperform land trees in storing carbon

• The resilience — and fragility — of nature’s interconnected systems

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Biodiversity is not just life on Earth. It is life as a system — and we are part of it.

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Chapters:

00:00 - 01:28 - Introduction

01:28 - 05:23 - Haute cuisine, wild potatoes, and food security

05:23 - 08:12 - Sloth, fungi and novel antibiotics

08:12 - 11:04 - Kelp and sequestration of greenhouse gases

11:04 - 13:10 - Biodiversity like never before

13:10 - 13:24 - The end

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Sources & further articles to read:

• Altman, MJ (2023). "Biodiversity Explained: Facts, Myths, and The Race to Protect it". United Nations Foundation. Available online.  

• Barclay, E. (2012). Public Health: "As Biodiversity Declines, Tropical Diseases Thrive". NPR.org. Available online.

• Hurlimann, S. (2019). "How Kelp Naturally Combats Global Climate Change". Harvard University. Available online. 

• Latham, K. (2021). Biodiversity: "How biodiversity loss is jeopardising the drugs of the future". The Guardian. Available online​

• MacNair, CR., CN., Steven, Rutherford, T., Tan, M-W. (2023).  "Returning to Nature for the Next Generation of Antimicrobial Therapeutics". MDPI. Antibiotics 2023, 12(8), 1267.

• Sexton, C. (2023). "Sloths may hold a secret weapon against antibiotic resistance".  Earth.com. Available online.