After
reading Vandana Shiva’s Tomorrow’s Biodiversity “What is Biodiversity
and Why is it so Important?” in the Colloquium Reader there were a couple of quotes that really
stood out to me. One of these quotes is “Humankind is
one among millions of other species. It does not have a right to push other
species to extinction, or to manipulate them for greed, profit, and power
without concern for their well-being.” (Shiva, p. 40) Humans take for granted their existence on
earth. Even though we were not the first
organisms to exist on this earth, we have taken it upon ourselves to take
ownership of everything earth has to offer.
We feel like we are free to do whatever we want as long as we somehow
benefit. For example, we have no problem
clearing out a whole forest to make way to build a neighborhood. When we do this, we do not consider all of
the habitats we are destroying and how we may we driving a certain species to
extinction. As long as someone is making
a financial gain, all of these problems seem to be pushed off to the side.
 |
| https://audioboom.com/boos/313510-earth-hour-does-it-work |
Another quote that really stood out to me was
“The extinction of a species
means not just the loss of that particular species, but also a threat to the
other species that are supported by it through ecological processes.” When people hear someone talking about a
certain species going extinct, they feel sympathy for that animal, but that is
as far as it goes. What people forget to
realize is how the extinction of that animal is going to affect other species
and the habitat that it came from. For
example, if a certain species of snake goes extinct in SWFL, all of the birds
that depend on that snake as a food source will suffer greatly. Also, all of the small rodents the snake
depended on for a food source will greatly increase in size, which could cause
problems.
The last quote that interested
me while reading Tomorrow’s Biodiversity is
“Species now become extinct at the rate of 27,000
per year – 1,000 times the natural rate – and human greed and desire for profit
are the primary cause of most of these extinctions.” This just shows how much of an effect humans
have on the environment. People don’t realize
it, but many of the things they use or do throughout the day have a very
negative affect on the environment. We need
to realize this before it is to late and change what we are currently
doing. If everyone just makes a small
change in how we do certain activities that could make all the difference in
the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment