Uganda, Dec. 7 -- The 15th conference of the parties to the United Nations belatedly gets underway today in Montreal, Canada, with the consensus view that we are now living in an age of extinction.

Uganda, a party to the convention on biological diversity since December of 1993, has in recent times had first-hand experiences of biodiversity loss in some shape or form. The country has just come through yet another dwindling harvest season of grasshoppers.

Human behaviour-notably deforestation and climate change-is blamed for this biodiversity loss. While deforestation has deprived the insects of a natural habitat, the vagaries of weather have upset their life cycles. This has had a domino effect of loss perpetuating loss.

Scientists the...