1
Overkill—How One Species Is Managing to Destroy All Others
by Sharanya Sivasathiyanathan
Abstract:
Biodiversity and its environments play a critical role in the sustainability, balance and day-to-day prosperity of human life. From essential needs to medicinal breakthroughs, with natural resources comes many human health and livelihood benefits. On the other hand, their depletion can not only risk the safety of our natural balance, but also make all progress futile. One of the main threats provoking the exhaustion or destruction of environments is climate change—the broad name given to explain the consequences of industrialization and human civilization’s toll on the earth. It consists of a warming planet, resulting in dangerous natural disasters with consequences on the ecosystems of various species… and the rising heat doesn’t seem to slow down any time soon. It’s safe to say that people around the world are growing more and more worried, but there’s still hope if we change our ways first.
Victor Hugo, a poet known for his creation of Les Miserables once said, “Change your opinions, keep your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots.”
However, the roots have severed. Considering human developments and consequences, on our roots—our Earth, the repercussions of our disregard have emerged and are commonly known as the phenomenon “climate change”. Though often forgotten, as shown through heedless quotidian decisions, the Earth doesn’t belong to human civilization; it’s home to 8.7 million species in our biodiversity. (National Wildlife Federation "Biodiversity" 2020) However, as industrialization and human populations rapidly increase, leaving no room for habitats previously existing for centuries, climate change is overtaking, disturbing and destroying coexisting ecosystems.
Joe Heller’s satirical comic displays the fearsome truth surrounding human activity.
What is Biodiversity?
As people become growingly concerned about the environment, the term “biodiversity” is ever so prevalent. It refers to the variety of life on Earth, in all forms and interactions. (National Wildlife Federation "Biodiversity" 2020) Consisting of numerous levels, as minuscule as genes, through individual species and creature communities, and stretching entire ecosystems, biodiversity has various terrestrial, marine, and aquatic “ecological complexes”.(National Wildlife Federation "Biodiversity" 2020, Greenfacts "Biodiversity & Human Well-being" 2021) Ecosystems home to higher levels of biodiversity, like endemic species (only found in particular locations), are called hotspots. (Greenfacts "Biodiversity & Human Well-being" 2021) When considering vitality and complexity, according to professor David Macdonald at Oxford University, “without biodiversity, there’s no future.”(National Wildlife Federation "Biodiversity" 2020)
How are Human Lifestyles Affecting Our Biodiversity?
With pollution and global population swelling comes major threats jeopardizing biodiversity—and unprecedented acceleration in species extinction. Within the century, half of all organisms are expected to be destroyed. In 2016 alone, 30 hectares of forest land were razed to create housing and industrial sites. (National History Museum "Human Impacts on Biodiversity") Over 300 mammals, namely chimpanzees, hippos and bats, are eaten into extinction due to unsustainable hunting and poaching. (Greenfacts "Biodiversity & Human Well-being" 2021) Orcas and dolphins are wiped-out by industrial pollutants. (Greenfacts "Biodiversity & Human Well-being" 2021) Freshwater animal habitats comprising rivers and lakes subsided by 81% since 1970, after water contamination and dams. (National History Museum "Human Impacts on Biodiversity") These are all features that factor into the overarching theme of climate change, and the hotter the world becomes, the greater the threat to all life will be.
Why Is Biodiversity Important To Us and Our Future?
3
From food, clothing and shelter to fuel and harvested medicines, many species in human-managed and natural ecosystems provide countless foundational benefits—catalyzed by evolution—from which humans obtain critical necessities. We rely on biodiversity like plants for the oxygen we breathe, as well as the food and water we consume. Coral reefs provide coastal tsunami protection. (National Geographic Society "Biodiversity" 2019) Numerous plants absorb air pollution in metropolitan zones and remove noxious CO2 from the atmosphere. (National Geographic Society "Biodiversity" 2019) Biodiversity also impacts weather conditions at every scale, hence determining climate change. The term “biocultural” refers to the perception that social and physiological entities are interrelated; that human activity modifies, and in turn is modified by the ecological systems in which communities exist ("What is Biodiversity? Why Is It Important?: AMNH"). Intact ecosystems offer stable systems supplying the sustainability of our planet, including our economy—ecosystem services value trillions and double the global GDP. (National History Museum "Human Impacts on Biodiversity")
On the contrary, biodiversity depletion cost Europe 3% of its wealth. (Carrington "What is biodiversity and why does it matter to us?" 2018) In terms of diet, seafood is a prominent protein source for 2.5 billion people. (Carrington "What is biodiversity and why does it matter to us?" 2018) However, overfishing has declined totals; the preponderance is now frequently industrially, and non-naturally fished. The loss of pest predators and waste decomposers—the insects at the foundation of food chains—has the potential to wreck ecosystems, unleashing invasions of non-native species. (Greenfacts "Biodiversity & Human Well-being" 2021) Moreover, water purification, agricultural pest regulation and pollination are all due to biodiversity, which safeguards regions from natural disasters such as fires or floods. (National History Museum "Human Impacts on Biodiversity")
How Are We Currently Doing?
Frankly, not well. Tigers are currently seeing a dangerous 97% plunge. ("What is Biodiversity? Why Is It Important?: AMNH") Accelerated losses of wildlife are growing comparable to the catastrophic destroyal of dinosaurs, the sixth mass extinction in geological history already underway. 25% of mammals, 41% of amphibians and 13% of birds are currently endangered. ("What is Biodiversity? Why Is It Important?: AMNH") To researchers, extinction rates are a “biological annihilation” depicting a “frightening assault on the foundations of human civilization”. (Carrington "What is biodiversity and why does it matter to us?" 2018)
4
Biodiversity is facing drastic damage at the hands of human activity. There’s no current understanding of when this will result in widespread ecological collapse. Unsustainable resource use such as overfishing, habitat loss and fragmentation, diseases, and invasive species all stem from interrelated complexes like growing human populations, overconsumption, and above all, climate change, which strain biodiversity.
How Can We Protect our Biodiversity?
Provide nature protection and space. By supporting tourism, we’re profiting and making creatures worth more alive. Choose sustainable lifestyle options, like eating less meat (particularly beef).
To conclude, locating the tipping point before collateral ecological subsidence is an urgent priority for scientists and researchers, who wish to preserve natural resources through initiatives aiming to create “open-source genetic databases for plants, animals and single-cell organisms”. (National Geographic Society "Biodiversity" 2019) It creates commercial opportunities, like self-driving car algorithms based on Amazonian ants! (National Geographic Society "Biodiversity" 2019)
This is an urgent call we must attend to. It’s within our power to ensure the survival of eco-diversity; mending torn roots.
5
Bibliography
1. “Biodiversity.” National Wildlife Federation,
www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Understanding-Conservation/Biodi versity.
2. “Biodiversity & Human Well-Being.” 1. Biodiversity: What Is It, Where Is It, and Why Is It Important?, www.greenfacts.org/en/biodiversity/l-3/1-define-biodiversity.htm. 3. “Human Impacts on Biodiversity.” Natural History Museum,
www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/our-work/biodiversity/human-impacts-biodiversity.html. 4. National Geographic Society. “Biodiversity.” National Geographic Society, 5 June 2019, www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/biodiversity/#:~:text=Biodiversity is a term used, bacteria, animals, and humans.
5. “What Is Biodiversity and Why Does It Matter to Us?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 12 Mar. 2018,
www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/12/what-is-biodiversity-and-why-does-it-matter-to -us.
6. “What Is Biodiversity? Why Is It Important?: AMNH.” American Museum of Natural History,
www.amnh.org/research/center-for-biodiversity-conservation/what-is-biodiversity.