We all inhabit this earth and it is the only known planet that can support life that we know of. From the beginning of human existence there seems to be a consistent theme of enforcing ones will on their surroundings; in other words, man’s dominion over the earth and its inhabitants. Perhaps this is part of human nature, but as we have developed we have realized some of the injustices our history contains, minus one aspect-our treatment of animals. If we are to think morally than it is wrong for humans to believe we are the penult mum species on this earth and that it is ours to use for our benefit. Are we so naïve to think this? Have we not seen that we cannot control the nature world? Are we not damaging ourselves in the process of exerting our dominion?
The idea of dominion can be also viewed as a caretaker of the earth, that it is humanity’s responsibility to protect the nature around it as another species that depends on a healthy natural world. As a species we have already begun to ruin this earth and harm those who inhabit it. However, we can also do our part to find a balance, our place in this world, and our role as another species on this planet.
According to National Geographic our rain forests are on pace to completely vanish in a hundred years. The biggest reason for the cutting down of our rain forests is to grow agricultural products. Recognizing sustainable products to buy and items to avoid can make a difference. Coffee plantations for example can have a huge effect on biodiversity, or the number of different species on the planet. Coffee plants require both a large amount of space and sunlight and thus unsustainable, yet productive, plantations need cleared cut rain forests. Rain forests also happen to be the most bio-diverse ecosystems on the planet. According to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, it is estimated that there are 140,000 species in the Amazon Rainforest alone. We know of about 2 million species but there are estimates of upwards of 10 million species on our planet. You might be thinking to yourself if there are so many why is it a problem if we lose some? Well, we are not just losing some and there is really no way of knowing how many key species we are losing if we do not know how many species we have on this planet.
According to the World Wildlife fund for Nature, our current potential rate of extinction is between 10,000 to 100,000 species a year! If you remove too many or some of the central or keystone species from the environment then the overall ecosystem and all its inhabitants suffer. Honey bees are a species that are incredibly important to the pollination of some 250,000 flowering plant species. Without a pollinator the plants do not reproduce, or produce fruits and thus we do not have the fruits and vegetables we eat.
We as a species cannot fail to recognize that the human population is unstainable without a stable earth/diversity of life.
For more on the effect of biodiversity loss on the human population and the natural world visit World Wildlife Fund for Nature.
References
World Wildlife Fund for Nature. (2017) How many species are we losing?. http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/biodiversity/biodiversity/
National Geographic.(n.d) Deforestation. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestation/