Why We Should Care More About Our Ecosystems

I chose this topic for several reasons. One of them being the lack of importance and respect we seem to express for mother nature. As technology advances at neck breaking speeds, the environment and its conservation seems to have been left in the dust. As our list of priorities expands to accommodate new topics, our care for nature has fallen off. If a tangible list of our current priorities was made, I doubt flora and fauna would make it to the top 10. It’s a real shame, as we would lose a lot more than people seem to think. As an environmentalist myself, it was in my personal interest to learn more about this topic, so using it as the topic for my IR is killing two birds with one stone, really. I’ll be addressing 3 issues in this report:

1. The importance of biodiversity
2. Why a healthy ecosystem is essential
3. Challenges in ecosystem protectionIssue

The importance of biodiversity

Biodiversity is a term used to describe the variety of life in an area, in this case, life on earth. A greater number of species in an area means that said area is more biodiverse than one with less species. Through my research of this topic, it had become evident that biodiversity contributes a lot more to our economy than people think. A survey taken in late 2014 shows that a minimum of 40% of the world’s economy and roughly 80% of the needs of the poor are sourced from biological resources. Biodiversity boosts ecosystem productivity. An ecosystem is fittingly described as a natural machine, self-sustaining and optimized. Each species represents a component in that machine, and each member, a cog.

In a natural ecosystem without foreign influence, there are no “useless” parts. Every species plays a role. When talking about benefits to humans, a larger number of plant species in a more biodiverse jungle hugely increases the chances of cross pollination, or new species popping up. Which means more crops, more types of food (which means less risk of the whole source getting wiped out by disease or another threat), and in general, better chances of survival, easier adaptation, and a boost to rural economies through new flora appearing that can be sold. Also, greater variation in species results in better natural sustainability for all life, and studies show that biodiverse ecosystems have astronomically higher chance of surviving and recovering from disasters than more simple communities. Healthy levels of biodiversity are incredibly valuable to us humans as it contributes to many more services than we realize.

Ecologic services

• Protection of water resources (natural filtration by aquatic life)
• Soil formation and protection (the nitrogen cycle)
• Storage, formation and filtration of nutrients (In plants)
• Absorption and breakdown of pollutants (by microorganisms and plants)
• Contribution to climate stability (absorption of i. e. CFC)
• More self-sustaining ecosystems (natural balancing, referenced in issue

Smoother recovery from unpredictable events

Biological resources

• Food
• Medicinal resources and pharmaceutical drugs
• Wood products
• Ornamental plants
• Breeding stocks, population reservoirs (Selective breeding starts with wild specimens)
• Future resources (natural resources replenish faster in a healthy ecosystem)
• Diversity (cross species pollination happens faster in more biodiverse ecosystems)

Social Components

• Research, education and monitoring
• Recreation and tourism (can improve neighboring economies)
• Cultural prospects

The importance of maintaining healthy levels of biodiversity cannot be understated. We’ve got to make changes.

Issue 2 – Why a healthy ecosystem is essentialGenerally, when the word “essential” is used, it means that we need it to survive. That implication was no accident. Quite literally everything we have came from nature one way or another. We still take an unreal amount from nature. Healthy ecosystems are a sign that the natural balance of an area is right on its axis, as it should be. We need nature.

However, the fact of the matter is, nature doesn’t need us. Now, we consume 11,000 litres of air per minute, that’s around 15840 cubic metres of pure oxygen per day. PER PERSON. That’s roughly 11800 cubic kilometers of air for everyone on earth daily. The point is, we need this big green oxygen producing factory, just like we “need” our cars and houses, our internet and air conditioners.

There’s one key difference though. We take care of the other things we need. Nature? Not so much. Globally, around a quarter of all deaths are due to environmental factors that could be prevented, this is commonly due to an explosion in one of the food chain subclasses that normally would be prevented just naturally. For instance, the spread of a venomous species of snake would normally be culled by predation from predatory birds, which keep the population in check. But due to pollution and deforestation, the birds may migrate and allow the snakes to thrive and multiply rapidly, endangering any nearby human settlements.

Issue 3 – Challenges in ecosystem protectionIt’s nothing new to be saying that the concern for our environment’s health is lackluster, at best. Though environmental protection departments seem to be sprouting up in governments around the globe, in fact, most of government bodies have some sort of environmental protection laws, at least. Even though it’s clear that the rapidly decaying state of our surroundings has become far more apparent to the general populous than it was, say, 40 years ago, the rate at which awareness has spread is hardly proportional to measures taken. Though you may see more “Go green” posters hanging at your local bus stop, the motorcyclist driving by still won’t hesitate to ditch his coffee can in the general direction of a trashcan, without a care for weather or not it meets said can.

The smoker standing and looking at the time his bus is due still won’t hesitate to blow out his puff whilst admiring passing butterfly, he’ll then proceed to drop the bud and step out the cinder right on the ground and leave it there. Whenever you hear about the protection of the environment, you always here the same term. “Awareness”. It always seems like next week’s environmental seminar, or the upcoming convention on ecological importance is always talking about awareness, about how we don’t see how bad the state of our environment is. Personally, I don’t think that’s the truth. If you ask any random Joe on the street about the state of our environment, chances are, he’ll tell you it doesn’t look too good. The point is, he knows. They know. The issue isn’t that people don’t know, it’s that they don’t care. Even though countless numbers of anti-pollution laws are present all over the place, and countless other appearing around every corner, the goliaths of production, industrial titans that make what we use every day, are still caught all the time secretly disposing of their wastes in illegal ways, i. e. dumping it into rivers. Its quite clear that a huge amount of this cost reducing scheme is going on behind the scenes every day, in fact, it’s so bad, in fact, that a whopping 11% of pollutants comes from industry.

Of course, there are countless other minor factors that lead to such a vulnerable environment, but these are the ones that I feel need to be highlighted. Comparison of IssuesI cannot understate the importance of all the issues elaborated on in this IR, but I think it makes the most sense to focus my comparison on the 2nd and 3rd issues as I utilized the first issue mainly to define biodiversity. Now, both issues have their importance obvious, and although one issue will end up appearing more important, neither should be neglected. Honestly, both issues tie into each other quite well as the very importance of ecosystemic essentiality is why challenges in it’s protection should be dealt with as soon as possible. But one must come out on top right? There needs to be an issue which trumps the other, but the difference in nature of the issues makes them difficult to rank as they don’t fall into the same category. But the primary topic when it comes to the environment is, and probably is going to remain, it’s conservation. It’s far more pressing for us to deal with the threat to environmental health rather than assessing and extracting its most important resources. After all, we can know and appreciate the value of the environment all we want. But if it’s due to doom in the next few centuries, what’s the point?

Scientists and other Subject Matter Experts estimate that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammal become extinct every single day. This is almost a thousand times the “natural” or “background” rate and, a great many biologists have noted that this alarming rate of extinction is greater than anything the world has experienced since the vanishing of the dinosaurs nearly 65 million years ago, and we all know how good that was for the ecosystems of Terra. Course of actionIt’s nigh on impossible to bring up a course of action that hasn’t already been tried… and failed, sad to say. I think what we need to change our view on this problem. The explanatory method with benefits and importance clearly isn’t working, so I think it’s time we took a more… direct approach. Though we, luckily, don’t have a totalitarian government ruling us all, its not illogical to take a forceful approach in protecting our environment, since this slow and steady method we’re engaged in currently is not nearly happening as fast as it needs to be. I think that stricter laws need to be implemented and enforced, guaranteeing the safety of our green world. For example, poachers should be left with far more than a slap on the wrist, It’s nonsensical to me that a man who killed hundreds, potentially thousands of animals should be let off with merely a fine or a few years of jail time.