On Earth Day, a Leadership Note

Edward O. Wilson, a noted Harvard biology professor, calculates that we humans are destroying wildlife and natural habitats so fast that one-fifth of all existing species probably will vanish from our planet in the next 30 years. Whatever the accuracy of that breathtakingly pessimistic prediction, there is no doubt that lost forever with destroyed species will be untold future sources of food, medicine and natural wonders.

During and after the Earth Summit in Rio nearly a year ago, leaders from 165 nations signed a biodiversity treaty. Now, wisely, the United States will sign too. Without imposing legal obligations, the pact asks signatories to inventory the wildlife within their borders and to develop plans to protect endangered species, something Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has already announced he will do in this country. The treaty provides help for poorer countries to carry out that task, and obliges countries that use the genetic resources of another nation--to develop drugs, for example--to share their knowledge.

But in part due to opposition from some American biotech firms to these provisions, the United States, alone among the major economic powers, refused to sign the treaty last year. Then-President George Bush contended that it threatened U.S. jobs and technology. But now, prominent drug makers, after study and discussion, support it. And in announcing just before Earth Day that he will sign it, President Clinton is making good on his promise to take an international leadership role on the environment.