Reports

Galápagos.Travel diari

The ecosystem of the Galapagos is extremely fragile and subject to the worst environmental hazards generated by our civilization from invasive species, to rising sea levels, through the oil slicks. To spoil this heritage would not only be a huge scientific loss for scientists, but also a worrying signal regarding the sanity of the human species.

Michele Catanzaro | 23 de july de 2009

"A small world in itself … that takes us to that great happening (mystery of mysteries): the first appearance of new creatures on Earth”: that’s how Darwin describes the Galapagos Islands. Hundred-fifty years after the publication of the naturist’s masterpiece The Origen of the Species, I have gone to the Galapagos to return to the starting point of a scientific vision that revolutionized the world. The visit to this island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a thousand kilometres from Ecuador’s coast; it probably was the highlight of the naturalist’s journey around the world (1932-1936).

“The trip on the Beagle [the ship in which Darwin sailed] has without doubt been the most important experience of my life and has determined my whole career … I’m sure that was the training that allowed me to do all that I have done in science”, the scientist tells us in his Autobiography.