It's up to each of us to help save life on Earth - I love this challenge | Bob Brown

Taking action against species extinction can be risky but it's better than surrenderExplore the series - Last chance: the extinction crisis being ignored this electionGet Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton's Clear Air column as an emailExtinction. In 1844 Ketill Ketilsson won the race to grab the last pair of great auks. They were nesting on Iceland's Eldey Island. Millions of these penguin-like birds had been slaughtered for feather-stuffed quilts to keep Europe's burgeoning human population warm. Ketilsson strangled the two but tripped over and broke their egg. Never mind, he won the reward being offered by museums in Copenhagen for the final specimens.A perverse market rule on species had been established: the rarer a species gets, the more valuable it becomes. It came too late for those who killed the last dodo, moa or Steller's sea cow - but look at the money now going into resurrecting mammoths and thylacines.Get Guardian Australia environment editor Adam Morton's Clear Air column as an email Continue reading...