Ten British species now have an identity we care about | George Monbiot

Our competition giving common names to 10 rare UK species means we now have a cultural connection that will help their conservation causeo Queen's executioner beetle wins species naming competitiono See the full list of winnersIt's the most successful exercise in crowd-sourcing I've ever seen. We asked our readers to solve a problem, and they've done far more than that: they have created something beautiful.The problem is this: it is hard to persuade people to care about something they can't pronounce. English species are disappearing at the rate of two a year. But many are vanishing unnoticed and unmourned by almost everyone, partly because we have no cultural connection to them. Scientific names, which are given in Latin or ancient Greek, are essential to proper classification, but to most people they are cold, incomprehensible and offputting. Continue reading...