Biodiversity is important to all aspects of wellness in our world. Not only does it ensure the heartiness of species, but it allows for the continued presence of plants, animals and ecosystems for use by humans. Lack of biodiversity causes extremes in the natural balance of nature. The loss of one plant can cause the eventual collapse of an entire ecosystem. There has been some positive action taking place, with world wide efforts, such as with the G8Summit and the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity, to address these concerns.
Why do I feel the loss of biodiversity is so important to address?
At least 40 per cent of the world’s economy and 80 per cent of the needs of the poor are derived from biological resources. In addition, the richer the diversity of life, the greater the opportunity for medical discoveries, economic development, and adaptive responses to such new challenges as climate change.
— The Convention about Life on Earth, Convention on Biodiversity web site.
The following video sums up what biodiversity means to the world, and to the human population:
As stated by Jaan Suurkula, "The increasingly rapid, large scale extinction of species is a thousand times higher in the 20th century than the average rate during the preceeding 65 million years! When extinction is slow, a balance can develop. The resulsts of the rapidly occuring extinction is unknown, but is likely to precipitate collopses of ecosystems at a global scale. This could cause large scale agricultural problems which in turn can threaten the food supply for millions of people. He goes on to say that repeatedly failed attempts to limit the industrialized fishing has contributed to mass extinctions. Up to 90% of all large fishes have disappeared from the world's oceans in the past half century. The loss of preditory fish, like sharks, is likely to cause complex imbalances in marine ecology. The destruction of coral reefs is another factor causing fish extinction. ...According to the most comprehensive study done so far in this field, over a million species will be lost in the coming 50 years, due mostly to climate change."
Jaan Suurkula, World-wide cooperation required to prevent global crisis; Part one— the problem, Physicians and Scientists for Responsible Application of Science and Technology, February 6, 2004
We had better wake up! It is alarming to me to see the trends in loss of biodiversity. But why? What do we get from all of this biodiversity?
- Ecosystem services, such as
- Protection of water resources
- Soils formation and protection
- Nutrient storage and recycling
- Pollution breakdown and absorption
- Contribution to climate stability
- Maintenance of ecosystems
- Recovery from unpredictable events
- Biological resources, such as
- Food
- Medicinal resources and pharmaceutical drugs
- Wood products
- Ornamental plants
- Breeding stocks, population reservoirs
- Future resources
- Diversity in genes, species and ecosystems
- Social benefits, such as
- Research, education and monitoring
- Recreation and tourism
- Cultural values
What are we doing to cause this tremendous loss of biodiversity? Humans are causing it by:
- Habitat loss and degradation - destroying rainforests, desecrating coral reefs
- Climate change - Global warming
- Excessive nutrient load and other forms of pollution - run-off from persticides and fertilizers, air pollution
- Over-exploitation and unsustainable use - Industrialized fishing
- Invasive alien species - the introdcution of alien species to areas such as the Everglades
I could continue writing about this pressing problem. I was shocked to read about the currently used medication that has been dervived from plants. The loss of even one plant could have tremendous effects on future medicinal dicsoveries. This is an extremely interesting booklet that I encourage all to read: http://chge.med.harvard.edu/programs/bio/documents/Biodiversity_v2_screen.pdf
If I was given $100 billion to address this problem, I would allocate the funds to explore this problem, and to educate the world population about what diversity does for us, and how we are destroying it. I feel if most people knew the importance of having diversity in plants, animals, genetics, etc, they would strive to conserve and make changes.
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