Environmental science
10/21/10
Initial Research
Biodiversity means biological diversity. This can be defined as variety of life. There are many components to biodiversity, Genetic diversity, species diversity, and ecosystem diversity[1]. All of these deal with life and things do naturally become extinct but with humans becoming more advanced and invading ecosystems we are destroying them, speeding up the natural process of elimination.
Bio diversity is important to the environment because without it we wouldn’t have many things we have today, from food to medical purposes to plants being able to grow. Bees are a key factor to this because without bees to pollinate flowers there are no vegetables or any other kind of food that comes from a flower. However there is artificial pollination but would be way too expensive to artificially pollinate enough plants to reach demands.
Bio diversity acts as a chain effect. Remove one piece the entire thing falls apart, because there isn’t an animal or insect in place to maintain natural order of a population growth. For example local whales began controlling the sea and fishermen didn’t like this. So they started killing whales. When this happened killer whales started killing seals and otters. This left no one to control the sea urchins which started destroying kelp beds.[2]
"Conservation of biodiversity is not about keeping one species away from another," he told the meeting. "It is not about building fences around national parks and keeping humans out. It is about interaction between all species and their natural ecosystem,[3]"
I agree with this because if it naturally builds a new chain and people try to put it back to its natural environment then it will not be self sustainable.
My idea for the senior project is dealing with bees and there affect on nature. How much harder would life become with out them. If a piece of the natural cycle disappeared would a new species come about and naturally fill the place of a bee. Or any other species that became extinct. Nature is more than just beauty and something to look at. If we are able to care for it and give back instead of taking without remorse, than by all means I would like to know this way and why haven’t we started making changes to benefit our planet as a whole. Insects and animals don’t have the power to fix our problems naturally. An effort needs to be made to help fix our problems.
[1] Ningthoujam, Debananda. "Biodiversity is life. Biodiversity is our life. Cophenhagen to Nagoya: Can the world save its ‘green gold’-the Earth’s Biodiversity?." kangla online. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2010.
[2] Shah, Anup. "Why Is Biodiversity Important? Who Cares? — Global Issues." Global Issues : social, political, economic and environmental issues that affect us all — Global Issues. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2010.
[3] "Bees and biodiversity linked to food shortage - The New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2010.
You have good information and ideas. It needs a little more structure to how it all relates to biodiversity. The quotes that you use also seem to just be placed into the paper so that you have them. It will be an interesting subject though.
ReplyDeleteI think your approach to this issue is a refreshing one. I agree with you and your evidence that it is better for us to help the world become self sustainable not reliable. Nature made everything the way it is for a reason and humans take advantage of stuff. I think it totally relates to biodiversity because I expect that you will expand on how bees help each part of the world including humans, animals, plants, the ocean? I only noticed one quote, and it seemed appropriate. so I dont know how helpful this will be with my comment differing from trumans. Of course your paper needs to go in depth with more of your opinion on what can be done and the connections, but for a first write up i think it is well put together.
ReplyDeleteYou did a really fantastic job relating your sources to the information you gathered for your topic. I like that you summarized your chosen topic for the project, I am going to go back and do that to mine. You write really well, I am excited to read other things you have written as nerdy as that sounds...
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