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To make sure we preserve as much as possible of our environment for the long term, we need to exploit recent progress in the biological sciences. It is said that "extinction is forever." True enough. To forestall this fate for life on earth, the information contained in all the elements of the ecosystem must be preserved. Billions of years of evolutionary trial and error have produced ingenious solutions which will serve as starting points to further development for years to come. An unknown variety of uses of natural materials and processes awaits to be discovered by examining the ingenuity of evolutionary developments. Even now, many of today's pharmaceuticals are being developed from natural materials, and many industries copy natural processes such as fermentation and various forms of digestion.
Today it is possible, using DNA mapping, to record the genetic code of all the endangered species. Knowing their genetic code, it will be possible to resurrect such species in the future, should the need arise. We are therefore in the early stages of being able to confer immortality, if not on individuals, then certainly on each and every one of the vast variety of life forms present on earth.
There need not be another "forever" extinction, after we have built a catalogue of the genetic codes of all life on earth and perfected laboratory incubation methods. In fact, we may be able to resurrect some of the recently extinct species if we can recover their genetic codes.
The undertaking that is necessary to achieve this goal in the long term will include the mandated collection of all genetic codes of existing flora and fauna, while we protect these life forms in the wild as far as is both practical and possible. The resulting Library of Life would be the greatest triumph of science to date.