Biodiversity

Duque, Erica Jane G.

Biodiversity
As stated by Neumann, R. P. (2009), Biodiversity is a recently invented term that
refers to diversity within the biosphere, including genetic, species, and habitat diversity.
The concept emerged in the 1980s with the rise of biotechnology - and the consequent
commodification of biological resources - and scientists' growing awareness of an
increasing species extinction rate. Increases in the numbers of extinct species and
species threatened with extinction present a global biodiversity crisis, which some
scientists believe constitutes the Earth's sixth episode of mass extinction, and the first
caused by human activities. Biodiversity touches nearly every aspect of human affairs in
the twenty-first century, including environmental sustainability, poverty and social
justice, medicine and healthcare, agriculture and food, and economic globalization.
On the reports of Cardinale, B. et al. (2012), 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.
As stated by a Professor in Oxford University, David Macdonald “Without
biodiversity, there is no future for humanity” with the continues decreased of the
biodiversity in the foreseeable future the food chain will be affected to the extent of
extinction of species.
In 1985 the term biodiversity was coined - a contraction of “biological diversity” –
but with the huge global biodiversity loss now becoming evident representing the crisis
parallel and even possible to surpass climate change. Biological Diversity or
“Biodiversity” consist of several levels, starting with the genes, to individual species, to
communities of creatures and finally to the entire ecosystems, such a forest and coral
reefs, where life forms are evident and interplays in the environment. The interaction
within the species and their connection with one another have made Earth inhabitable
for years. According to Damian Carrington, A more philosophical way of viewing
biodiversity is it represents the knowledge learned by evolving species over millions of
years about how to survive through the vastly varying environmental conditions Earth
has experienced.
For many wildlife is often seen on television. But in reality, the air people breathe,
the water they drink and even the food they eat all depend on biodiversity.
 Biological diversity is the resource upon which families, communities, nations and
future generations depend. It is the link between all organisms on earth, binding each
into an interdependent ecosystem, in which all species have their role. It is the web of
life. It is the most complex feature of the planet and it is the most vital.

Neumann, R. P. (2009). Biodiversity. In International Encyclopedia of Human

Geography (pp. 308–313). Elsevier Inc. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-008044910-
4.00559-9
Cardinale, B., Duffy, J., Gonzalez, A. et al. (2012). Biodiversity loss and its
impact on humanity. Nature 486, 59–67 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11148

https://www.nathab.com/blog/wwfs-living-planet-report-2014-we-now-
have-less-than-half-the-biodiversity-of-just-forty-years-ago/