Part One of the United Nations’ Biodiversity Conference is taking place this week in the city of Kunming in the country identified as the world’s largest polluter, the People’s Republic of China. Coming shortly before the United Nations’ scheduled Climate Change conference, the meeting takes place at a time when extinction rates among animals are significantly elevated as a result of human activity. The mostly remote conference, which is scheduled to last from Oct. 11 through Oct. 15, will include a meeting on the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which the United States has not ratified. It will also include meetings on the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety and the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of the Benefits Arising from Their Utilization, along with a High-Level Segment that will consider China’s submitted “Kunming Declaration.” (The United States has not ratified the Cartagena or …