Question

It has been said that biodiversity (or the loss of biodiversity, i.e. the loss of a species to extinction) is the most important issue that humans face. The argument goes something like this: we can change our population growth rates (if we want to)...we can fix acid rain, even global climate change, we can stop dumping wastes into rivers...but when we lose a species to extinction..... it is forever (there is no getting the species back).

Since we are reading (now and in the days ahead) about ecology, biodiversity and endangered species let's consider the following: if you are watching the news it seems like everyone is focused on politics, the economy, health care, jobs, the global stock markets, Syria, Afghanistan North Korea and Iraq, among other things..... and perhaps those are the areas where our focus should be....

Here's the question for this discussion board... Does it really matter about what happens to species across the planet, when our everyday lives are so uncertain? If we lose a species, or 2 or 20 or ..... does it matter? What do you think?

Answer 1

Yes it matters a lot because loss of species from earth causes imbalance in the ecosystem. Biological diversity is the resource upon which our families, communities, nation, and future generations and depend. It is the link between all organisms on earth, binding each into an interdependant ecosystem, in which all species have their role.

          The natural assets of earth are plants, animals, humans, water, land and atmosphere. All are the part of our earth's ecosystem, and if there is crisis in biodiversity, our atmosphere and health will be at risks.

          Species extinction and the degradation of ecosystems are proceeding rapidly and the pace is accelerating. The biodiversity crisis i.e. the rapid extinction of species and the rapid degradation of ecosystems – is a threat than global climate change to the stability and prosperous future of humanity on Earth. Extinction of Species is a natural process in Earth’s history, but in the past centuries because of human activities have increased the extinction rate by 50 to 1,000 times compared to extinction at natural rate.

          Increase in population and due to technological advances is leading to affect the climate, and because of this climate change the rate of extinction of animals are rapidly increasing. Ecosystems depend on fundamental environmental cycles such as the permanent circulation of water, carbon, and other nutrients. Human activities have modified these cycles, especially during the last 5 decades as increases in use of freshwater, carbon dioxide release anduse of fertilizer. Use of land by humans affected the habitat of animals, and because of the effect on their natural habitat, animals are unable to survive longer and because of this the rate of extinction are increasing. There is need to control over the loss due to human activities to protect our environment for the survival of species otherwise our ecosystem will continue be affected and it will badly affect the health and wealth of humans and our future generation will be hard to survive.