List the major ideas, concepts or key points- point by point
Saving ecosystems and biodiversity will benefit humanity. Ecosystem services provide us with food, medicine, income and many other services. Human health is threatened when ecosystems and natural cycles break down. Ecosystems such as grasslands and forests that have been destroyed cannot stop dust, which caused a rise in U.S asthma. Conserving ecosystems can also prevent humans from disease. We can help save ecosystems and biodiversity in many ways. One way is by providing clean water, reducing soil erosion and preventing overfishing. Conservationists and people need to hear that preventing poverty, inequality and disease starts with taking care of earth.
C: Write a reaction paragraph to the article stating your own thoughts on the topic, using specific citations from the article to support your views
After reading this article, I think the best way to help humans is to help the earth. The article says that helping the ecosystem and preserving biodiversity can benefit us. At first I did not know the many services and ecosystem can provide us. I believe that ecosystems ARE the first step to help prevent poverty, inequality and disease. Services like the wetlands can provide us clean water, which can reduce death from inadequate water. Ecosystems now are declining. If we want to prevent poverty, inequality and disease we need to save ecosystems and biodiversity.
So what?
We need to save ecosystems and biodiversity which can benefit humans by providing food, medicine, income, etc.
Says who?
Peter Kareiva and Michelle Marlier
What if...?
Biodiversity and ecosystems were never threatened? Less lives would be lost and some of the extinct species will still exist.
What does this remind me of?
Services such as the police department that provide us with help
- World Conservation Union placed three vultures long-billed, slender-billed and Oriental white-backed.
- Reasons for saving the vultures from extinction could be framed in familiar terms: we have an ethical obligation to save the world's biodiversity for its own sake. Reasons could be outlined in a less familiar way.
- People speculated the reason for decline in vultures was habitat loss or pollution.
- Researchers found that birds were being killed by anti-inflammatory drug, diclofenac. It is administered to cows. In bovines and humans, it reduces pain. In vultures it causes renal failure.
- As vultures disappeared, hundreds of thousands of cow carcasses left for the birds have festered in the sun, where they incubate anthrax and are consumed by dogs.
- Because of the ready food supply, dog population has exploded and with it is also the threat of rabies
- Therefore, vultures' fate may be linked with that of millions of people. Saving vultures from extinction would protect people from a dangerous disease.
- Connections between human well-being and aiding endangered species are don't seem linked. Such connections abound in many situations that engage conservationists.
- Ecosystems like the wetlands and mangroves protect us from lethal storms. Forest and coral reefs provide food and income
- Damage to one ecosystem can harm another as well as the individuals who rely on it for resources.
- Public and governments view efforts to preserve biological diversity as elevating the needs of plants and animals above those of humans.
- To reverse trend and better serve humanity and threatened organisms conservationists argue: old ways of prioritizing conservation activities should be largely scrapped in favor of an approach that emphasizes saving ecosystems that have value to people. Plan is to save species while protecting human health and livelihood.
- Conservationists bad reputation has arisen due to people getting forced off their land or have food and income taken away so that animals and habitats could be preserved.
- Public perception of nature-versus-people derives from the strategy of hotspots.
- 1988 Norman Myers of University of Oxford developed idea of biodiversity hotspots, small areas that harbor a great variety of endemic plant species.
- Earlier conservation campaigns centered on charismatic species for hotspots
- In contrast, concept of hotspots provided a set of rigorous, quantifiable criteria by which to guide conservation investment- traige system based on counting species was more scientific than one based on compelling photographs.
- The idea of biodiversity that underlies hotspots has not succeeded in capturing public interest.
- People working in conservation avoid using the word "biodiversity" because it endangers a negative response.
- Scientists aren't keen on hotspots. Some point out that it might be false advertising. Places with a lot of native plant species do not have butterfly or vertebrate species as well. Floral hotspots are not those most vulnerable to extinction.
- Biologists shown that many of the least diverse regions provide important seasonal homes, migratory stops or nesting sites.
- Conservation needs additional principles to guide it.
- People value nature as a source of food, fuel, building materials, recreation and inspiration. Ecologists began to quantify this natural capital under "ecosystem services"
- These services include products like medicine and timber. Other processes that are unconsidered are water filtration, pollination, climate regulation, flood and disease control and soil formation.
- Putting prices on these services, they found that yearly value outstripped the gross domestic product of all countries combined.
- Idea of ecosystem services is not embraced by academics alone. Governments and nongovernmental organizations are considering protecting these services as a fundamental goal.
- Study by an international team of more than 1,300 scientists found that ecosystem services are declining and are being used unsustainably.
- Indian Ocean Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina brought focus on the relation between ecosystems and human living conditions.
- In both cases, damage was amplified by loss of natural vegetation.
- Destruction over the past 70 years of marshlands and eelgrass beds in Louisiana greatly exacerbated the storm surge generated by Katrina.
- In S.E Asia, widespread conservation of coastal mangrove forests into shrimp ponds meant that there was no wave buffer to protect from the tsunami.
- Post tsunami studies found that shorelines with intact mangrove forests suffered from almost no damage.
- The marshes and mangroves have no endemic plant species and estimate that number of plant and animal species they contain do not approach one tenth found in rain forest.
- Connection between habitat loss and economic loss that aren't always obvious can be significant also.
- Overgrazing and unsustainable farming practices fuel poverty, famine and malnutrition regionally.
- Dust, pollutants and microorganisms accompany the sand in wiping out coral reefs--reducing tourism and fisheries.
- Economic benefits afforded by ecosystem services are needed most by developing nations.
- 2005 U.N report explains that maintaining the environment is key to alleviating poverty
- Human health is threatened when ecosystems and natural cycles break down.
- 2 million die each year from inadequate or unclean water supply.
- Conserving wetlands and forests would reduce the number.
- Saving forest and grasslands could reduce plumes of dust that have been linked to a rise in U.S asthma cases.
- Subtler connection between ecosystem degradation and human health can be seen in disease-causing organisms that move wildlife to humans.
- 2/3 of world diseases are caused by pathogens that infect nonhuman animal hosts and make contact with people because of changes in land use.
- Attempts to eradicate predators jeopardized human health.
- Focus on ecosystem services advocated is a repackaging of traditional conservation ideas that emphasize interconnectedness.
- Approach differs in many ways.
- 1. Conservationists are in denial about the state of world and must stop clinging to vision of pristine wilderness.
- With more population comes with more forests and wetlands cleared which leads to the decline of biodiversity.
- Biodiversity protection must be pursued in the context of landscapes. Protected areas will most likely need to be intensely supervised to retain their wildness.
- 2. Conservationists focus on regions where degredation of ecosystem services threatens well-being of people.
- By mapping habitats in terms of their ability to protect human communities in addition to biodiversity.
- 3. Conservationists should collab closely with development experts. By combining and coordinating the energy and capital of conservation forces and human welfare projects, could enhance efficiency and impact of both efforts.
- Without connection between conservation and social issues, policies that protect biodiversity are unlikely to find public support.
- Environmental groups need to move beyond their tendency to put the environment in an airtight container away from the concerns of others.
- 4. Conservation efforts will be assessed not just by number of species protected, but by improvements to people's well being.
- Services provided by nature do not always correlate with biodiversity.
- Second source of anxiety is that plants and animals central to ecosystem services and human economy are abundant.
- Although it would be morally reprehensible for humans to allow extinction of all species except those that provide services.
- Human-caused species are inevitable and we must be realistic about what we can and cannot accomplish.
- Must be sure to first conserve ecosystems in places where biodiversity delivers services to people in need.
- Conservationists should seek to identify life raft ecosystems--areas with high rates of poverty where a large portion of economy depends on natural systems. Conservation efforts aimed at providing clean water, reducing soil erosion and preventing overfishing will help people protect much biological diversity.
- Future ecosystem services as a conservation strategy may depend on collab of ecologists and finance experts.
- Conservationists need to hear and communicate the message that "our fight against poverty, inequality and disease is directly linked to the health of the earth itself". Conservation will only become truly global and widely supported when people are central to the mission.
Saving ecosystems and biodiversity will benefit humanity. Ecosystem services provide us with food, medicine, income and many other services. Human health is threatened when ecosystems and natural cycles break down. Ecosystems such as grasslands and forests that have been destroyed cannot stop dust, which caused a rise in U.S asthma. Conserving ecosystems can also prevent humans from disease. We can help save ecosystems and biodiversity in many ways. One way is by providing clean water, reducing soil erosion and preventing overfishing. Conservationists and people need to hear that preventing poverty, inequality and disease starts with taking care of earth.
C: Write a reaction paragraph to the article stating your own thoughts on the topic, using specific citations from the article to support your views
After reading this article, I think the best way to help humans is to help the earth. The article says that helping the ecosystem and preserving biodiversity can benefit us. At first I did not know the many services and ecosystem can provide us. I believe that ecosystems ARE the first step to help prevent poverty, inequality and disease. Services like the wetlands can provide us clean water, which can reduce death from inadequate water. Ecosystems now are declining. If we want to prevent poverty, inequality and disease we need to save ecosystems and biodiversity.
So what?
We need to save ecosystems and biodiversity which can benefit humans by providing food, medicine, income, etc.
Says who?
Peter Kareiva and Michelle Marlier
What if...?
Biodiversity and ecosystems were never threatened? Less lives would be lost and some of the extinct species will still exist.
What does this remind me of?
Services such as the police department that provide us with help