biodiversity

• Biodiversity


  The variety of different species on earth or within an ecosystem
• Biodiversity


  • Having lots of species on earth is nice
  • Makes ecosystems stable
  • Provides pollinators for plants
  • Provides potential for new medicines
• We know of around 200,000 species of animals that act as pollinators to help us pollinate everything from apples to avocados
• More than half of new medical drugs are derived from living organisms in some way
• Species going extinct


  We might lose potential medicines for the human species to survive and thrive
• Humans have a habit of damaging the environment which reduces biodiversity along with all of the benefits that it normally gives us
• In the past 1000 years our population has increased from around 300 million to 7.7 billion
• Each individual person puts a lot more pressure on the environment than we used to by demanding ever higher standards of living and consumer goods
• We generally use natural resources much faster than they can be replaced
• We could one day run out of natural resources just like we drove the western black rhino to extinction by poaching them for their horns
• To get resources we often have to clear out the natural ecosystems that lived there before which often involves processes like deforestation
• We produce loads of waste both individually when we throw out our rubbish or flush the loo and collectively during the production of all the things that we buy
• Waste generally makes its way into the water, onto the land or into the air, for example sewage from our homes, toxic chemicals from industry and the chemicals used in farming can all pollute lakes rivers and oceans which can hurt the plants and animals that live there
• Even though we bury our household waste in landfill and we fortify our nuclear waste underground in concrete, some toxic chemicals can still seep into the surrounding ecosystems
• Industrial processes along with the burning of any fossil fuels release chemicals like sulfur dioxide into the air which can directly harm organisms or cause acid rain
• Pollution can harm organisms either directly or indirectly and so often changes ecosystems and reduces biodiversity
• The release of greenhouse gases contributes to global warming
• Humans cause a huge amount of damage to the environment whether it's climate change, deforestation or dumping waste
• The end result is a reduction in biodiversity and a damaged ecosystem
• Ways to reverse this trend

  1. Reducing the bad practices that cause the damage in the first place

  2. Reducing the impact of those bad practices

  3. Helping the ecosystems withstand them
• Breeding programs for endangered species

  • Breed the animals in captivity to safely build up their numbers
  • Reintroduce them to the wild to join an existing population or form a new one
• Unless the natural habitat is safe, the endangered species population will probably just decline again
• Creating protected areas and regenerating rare habitats

  1. Protect areas like mangroves and coral reefs properly

  2. Won't need breeding programs because all organisms living there will be safe
• Reducing the impact of harmful but necessary practices like farming
• Practices encouraged by governments to increase biodiversity

  • Field margins
  • Hedgerows
• Governments regulate things like quotas on deforestation and carbon dioxide emissions
• Making a difference is up to us as individuals through recycling and reducing waste
• Theoretically, the environmental problems mentioned are fixable
• Challenges in practice


  • Protecting biodiversity is expensive and often overlooked
  • Maintaining our current high standard of living requires damaging the environment
  • In developing countries, people rely on the environment for their livelihood