Hey there! Let's take a mind-blowing journey into the world of language and knowledge diversity. Think about this - as of today, there are about 7,000 languages in the world. Wow, right? Now, here's the not-so-wow part. We're losing these languages super fast. Between 1950 and 2010, we lost 230 of them. Worse yet, the rate of loss has accelerated so much that we're losing a language every two weeks! Some experts even warn that this century could see the disappearance of 90% of our existing languages (Strochlic 2018).

Languages are like treasure chests filled with the riches of human knowledge. They show us people's histories, cultures, values and a lot more. Think of them as time capsules that capture the essence of civilizations. But when children stop speaking a language, it's like the keys to these treasure chests are lost forever. Anthropologist Wade Davis tells us that half of the existing languages are not being taught to kids anymore and are at a real risk of extinction. And the surprising thing is that while half the world's population speaks just 23 of the 7,000 languages, around 3,000 are endangered. That's quite a startling imbalance, isn't it?

Now, you might think that the loss of languages and cultural diversity is a natural byproduct of progress. Not true, says Davis. The actual threats are power imbalances and dominance. Imagine this, vibrant, living cultures and languages are being forced out of existence (Davis 2003). An example is how the 20th-century saw large-scale state mobilizations against Indigenous languages in places like Canada, Australia, and Tibet.