Human affecting Biodiversity

by Ray Huang

Did you know, animal extinction is boosted by about 100 times the rate? Do you know why this is happening? The answer is Human. Humans are the ones that cut down trees for money. Humans are the ones that release polluted water that animals drink, throw trash into the ocean, and also destroy habitats by building housing for humans. Humans are not friends with nature and they are still ain't. I will represent to you 3 topics that I think are the most important, biodiversity and climate change; why we should care; and how YOU can help biodiversity.

Climate change is a huge problem affecting biodiversity. Many countries around the world are already seeing the effects of climate change: stronger storms, heat waves, wildfires, and even droughts. Right now, we are stuck in a loop. Climate change accelerates the loss of biodiversity, and humans destroy ecosystems which weakens nature’s abilities to regulate greenhouse gas which accelerates climate change. This is also a reason why we must tackle these problems together. The EU is focusing on stopping the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem. After the biodiversity is controlled, they are going to focus on climate change.

Why should we care about this issue? Well, we should care because each animal is kind of connected like a Web Link, if an animal goes extinct, other animals will be affected. Here is an example that has been happening, at lakes, fishermen overfished Catfishes, which caused plankton to overpopulate because they have no natural predators, which creates a problem called eutrophication. This makes lots of fish and marine animals from ponds and lakes leave for other habitats or they will suffocate in the water. Even though only 6% of the animal went extinct, it affected almost 50% of the connected animal chain. Even though this didn't collapse the wood chain, every time an animal dissipates, the food chain will become more fragile, and other animals will have to replace the animal that went extinct.
Now, what are the main reasons that are causing the extinction of animals?

Overharvesting is a main problem that leads to the extinction of many species. We are catching about 85 million fish each year which decreases the amount of fish entirely and doesn't give it enough time to recover. This already permanently damaged the ecosystem of fish and other marine life. It's not only just the Marine Life that is being affected, The amazon rainforest nearly lost 10% of its land in the past 50 years. The amazon forest contains more than 50 000 species of animals and plants. More than 20% of the species in the Amazon forest is already classified as critically endangered.

Now, what can YOU do to help biodiversity? First, you can learn about your neighborhood's biodiversity and animals. This is can help you understand further and deeper about biodiversity. After learning more about biodiversity deeper, you can talk to your friends about it, and how you can save materials and use recyclable cups instead of plastic ones. You can also plant trees, pick up garbage, etc. You can also create habitats for birds and bees like creating a birdhouse, or a pollinator garden. you can also help the loss of biodiversity is by not disturbing natural habitats. For birds nesting in the backyards, you can also help by putting us bird nests and bird feeders in your backyard. You can help global warming by saving water for example when you're leaving a room, close the lights inside and you can also help by using bikes instead of cars and vehicles for short-term transport.

After reading this, I hope you learned something new and something that will show you that earth isn't just a plant but a whole web of unique species and animals that we humans can’t just disturb the delicate art piece of mother earth.