My next Concepting project is for the Center for Biological Diversity. I am advertising to ask for support in their work to protect endangered species. I’ve been told that the roughs I’ve put up in class for this subject have been too “frightening” and “urgent” and that I should tone it down. How can I make any less urgent the fact that every 20 minutes a species goes extinct? or the fact that if one species goes extinct it affects the entire ecosystem and can have grave effects on the other species that share its ecosystem. I don’t understand how to tone it down. I see it like this: each ecosystem is like a machine, with cogs and wheels and screws and levers. Each species is one piece of the whole machine. In this case, contrary to the popular phrase, the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts. Instead, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. With one cog or lever missing, the machine can still function, but not to its full capacity. I can’t think of a way to depict this philosophy without the problem seeming eminent.