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Decrease in biodiversity is eminent worldwide. Due to human causes, vertebrates fell to 60%
from the 1970s. Vertebrate is an animal of a large group distinguished by the possession of a
backbone or spinal column, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes.
According to the report of World Wide Fund for Nature and Zoological Society of London,
2% is the annual decrease in wildlife and it is because of the human population.
WWF is one of the world’s largest and most experienced independent conservation
organizations, with over 5 million supporters and a global network active in more than 100
countries. WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and
to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the world’s
biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and
promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.
Humans have industrialized the natural habitat of wildlife as well as marine life and in that
case those creatures who leave there has no place to live which cause them to die. According
to Marco Lambertini the General Director of WWF International, described that the
disappearance of wildlife is at an unprecedented rate.
And according to the experts, our Earth might enter the sixth mass extinction.The Holocene
extinction, otherwise referred to as the sixth mass extinction or Anthropocene extinction, is
an ongoing extinction event of species during the present Holocene epoch as a result of
human activity. This large number of extinctions spans numerous families of plants and
animals, including mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and arthropods. With widespread
degradation of highly biodiverse habitats such as coral reefs and rainforests, as well as other
areas, the vast majority of these extinctions are thought to be undocumented, as the species
are undiscovered at the time of their extinction, or no one has yet discovered their extinction.
Mass extinction is described as the disappearance of species at a rate of 1000 faster than usual
and this cause an imbalance in the ecosystem.
Changes in Biodiversity
A change in biodiversity could have erratic effects not only in wild life or marine life
but also in human beings. For example, human inhabiting the forest would disturb the natural
order of life. Trees and plants would be affected in land- clearing operations where the houses
would be built. The animals, insets and all types of life forms in the cleared area would either
be displaced or most likely killed. The loss of these life forms could affect the entire
ecosystem governing the environment. The food chain might damage. When our ecosystem is
not well taken care of, biodiversity encounter changes that may impact human health on such
different levels.
Threats to Biodiversity
There are major threats to biodiversity that were identified by United Nations’ Major
Programme (WHO, n.d.). These are the following:
1. Habitat loss and destruction. Major contributing factor is inhabiting of human beings
and use of land for economic gains.
2. Alternations in ecosystem composition. Alterations and sudden changes, either within
species groups or within the environment, could begin to change entire ecosystems.
Alterations in ecosystems are critical factor contributing to species and habitat loss.
3. Over- exploitation. Over hunting, overfishing or over- collecting of species can
quickly lead to its decline. Changing consumption patterns of humans if often cited as
the key reason for this unsustainable exploitation of natural resources.
4. Pollution and contamination. Biological systems respond slowly to change their
surrounding environment. Pollution and contamination cause irreversible damage to
species and varieties.
5. Global climate change. Both climate variability and climate change cause biodiversity
loss. Species and populations may be lost permanently if they are not provided with
enough time to adapt to changing climatic conditions.
Consequences of Biodiversity Loss
The most unique feature of Earth is the existence of life, and the most extraordinary feature
of life is its diversity. Approximately 9 million types of plants, animals, protists and fungi
inhabit the Earth. So, too, do 7 billion people. Two decades ago, at the first Earth Summit, the
vast majority of the world’s nations declared that human actions were dismantling the Earth’s
ecosystems, eliminating genes, species and biological traits at an alarming rate. This
observation led to the question of how such loss of biological diversity will alter the
functioning of ecosystems and their ability to provide society with the goods and services
needed to prosper.
Though there are already a lot of enhancements on the field of science and technology during
this age, there is still much to learn about our surroundings, especially on the consequences of
biodiversity loss since many individuals at present seem to be oblivious of the changes that
have been happening on our planet. The very fate of the Earth lies within our understanding
of how it works, of how it brings about life. The basic concept about biodiversity loss was
introduced to us by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace.
Complete ecosystems work in a perfect unison of different species, all of them unique, all of
them designated to a role, a role that if they do accomplish leads to the preservation of said
ecosystem. A lion stands atop the food chain in order to maintain balance. Think of it like
this, say an ecosystem has an absence of an apex predator, (e.g. the lion) the so called “prey”
would then be living in peace, without chaos, without anyone or anything to feed on it. Do
you think that this would be a prosperous ecosystem? The answer is simply no. Indeed, a
gazelle without a lion may live in peace, nothing would control it. And that is where the
problem lies, without a predator the numbers of the gazelle would skyrocket, their numbers
would simply be too much in order for the ecosystem to accommodate them. That is why the
predator is needed, to maintain balance, to maintain the so called “cycle of life”.
Extinction of species
Declining biodiversity lowers an ecosystem’s productivity
Threatens global food security
Loss of natural resources
Hampers the development of pharmaceutical research
Biodiversity is the basis of agricultural and our food systems, it includes all component of
biological diversity of relevance to food and agriculture. It includes plant’s genetic resources:
crops, wild plant harvested and managed for food, trees on farm, pastures and rangeland
species, medicinal plants and ornamental plants of aesthetic value.
Homogenous diets and poor food access mean that one in three people in the world suffers
from micronutrient deficiencies, while nearby 2 billion people are overweight or obese. Food
production and diets are further interlinked with heightened concerns over farmer livelihood
resilience and environmental sustainability.
Healthy local diets, with adequate average levels of nutrients intake, necessities maintenance
of high biodiversity levels. Intensified and enhanced food production through irrigation, use
of fertilizer, plant protection, or the introduction of plant crop varieties and cropping patterns
affect biodiversity and thus impact global nutritional status and human health. Habitat
simplification, species loss, and species succession often enhance communities,
vulnerabilities as a function of environmental receptivity to ill health.
Although the environment can sustain life, it can also cause diseases. Lack of badic
necessities is a signiicant cause of human mortality. Environmental hazards increase the risk
of cancer, heart disease, asthma and many other illnesses. These hazards can be physical,
such as pollution, food contaminants and toxic chemicals, or they can be social such as
dangerous work, poor housing, uban sprawl and poverty. In 2015, approximately 350,000
children under the age of five suffer from diarrheal diseases because of unsafe drinking water
amd approximately 1.8 billion people use drinking water contaminated with feces.
The interrelation between human health and biological diversity is considerable and complex.
With the current biodiversity loss at unprecedented rates , the current balance of biological
diversity and human health is at risk.
Environmental-Related Illnesses
Examples of diseases that you can get when you exposed yourself to the outside world:
Parkinson's disease, Heart disease, Cancer, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Asthma,
Diabetes, Obesity, Occupational injuries, Dysentery, Arthritis, Malaria, and Depression.
Some of our activities to extend our lives and to live comfortable have the effects in our
environment.
Examples:
Food production can have negative effects our environment by using chemicals, by
deforestation, and by over fishing. The other example is in the health care facilities because
they produces medical waste. To prevent some diseases can also damage to our environment
by alterations of natural resources we have. And lastly the reduction in mortality from
starvation and diseases can have negative impact to the environment because it is the cause of
overpopulation.
According to experts, climate change could also have a serious impact on human health and
could deteriorate farming system because of the unpredictable weather we are facing now and
reduce nutrients in some foods. Many of the issues at the intersection of health and the
environment have to do with managing benefits and risk. Many arguments are created
because of the negative and positive effects of some products we are using now.
An example of this is using pesticides. We all know that this product has the important role to
increase crop yields but there are also negative effects in using this like it can damage to the
soil and can effect the human health. Climate change is cause by human production of
greenhouse gases. This problem of human kind is not easy to resolve. There will always
negative and positive impact in the process of lessening greenhouse gases in the human
production. Example this is the greatly increasing taxes on fossil fuels would courage greater
fuel efficiency and lower carbon dioxide emission but it may lead in inflation.
Managing benefits and risks also raises social justice concerns, because poor have the higher
exposure to the environmental conditions. To resolve this problem the government need to do
some action because they are the one who is responsible in protecting its nation and its
citizens.
Justice demand that we should take care of people who are vulnerable. But the environmental risk
factor must be defined clearly to those populations who are vulnerable before adding protection to
everyone.
Public health strategies that pit the rights of individuals against the good of society:
Summary
“Value of biodiversity is the value of everything”
Biodiversity has a fundamental value to humans because we are so dependent on it for our culture,
economic and environmental well-being. It helps and provide us in everything we need.
We need to value biodiversity because it boosts ecosystem productivity where each species, no matter
how small, all have important play to role. And it is important for human lives because human being
along with the biodiversity, form a complete ecological system in which we are apart and dependent
on this system for our own existence.
We must begin to give the natural capital stock that produces these services adequate weight in the
decision-making process, otherwise, current and continued future human welfare may drastically
suffer, many ecosystem services are literally irreplaceable. We cannot ever evaluate such services
adequately, but we can value the ecosystems of the world appropriately.
Republic of the Philippines
Don Honorio Ventura State University
Villa de Bacolor, Pampanga
College of Business Studies
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