It warms cockles I didn't even know I had to read a stirring defense of systematics and taxonomy.
In Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum, paleontologist Richard Fortey says this:
"I assert that taxonomy has never been more important than now that so many of the world's precious habitats are under threat."
I've just read the book and he's convinced me. Ostensibly, it's a history of the people who do the behind-the-scenes research at the museum. Really, though, it's a crie de cour for us to keep funding the work of naming and grouping the millions of as yet unnamed species in the world.
I guess I didn't need that much convincing, though. I'm someone who spent several day's worth of internet time searching for taxonomic charts to hang in my daughter's bedroom. I never did find what I wanted -- either the posters were insultingly simple (plants and animals but no fungi, let alone protista, archae or monera), or they were all in latin. If I ever get the time I'm just going to have to produce one myself.