Thomas Eisner once said, “Biodiversity is the greatest treasure we have… its dimishment is to be prevented at all cost” (“Quotes From Prominent”). Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth, and the importance of maintaining it is not well known throughout the world. As humans continue to take over the planet they are affecting the surrounding environment. When people drive one species to extinction, it will upset the balance in its own ecosystem. For example, without the prey in a specific ecosystem, the predator would be left with less food to eat. There are 20 species of plants, such as wheat and corn, which provide 90% of the world's food (“Why Save”). Animals and plants provide people with food and medicine, and taking those two beneficial factors away would negatively change human lives. Instead of inducing endangerment through habitat destruction, the fashion industry, and hunting, humans need to protect threatened species because wildlife extinctions may jeopardize human survival.
Habitat loss poses the greatest threat to plants and animals, affecting about 85% of all species. The three main kinds of habitat loss are destruction, fragmentation, and degradation (“Habitat Loss”). Destruction takes place when humans bulldoze trees or fill in wetlands. Wildlife is cut up in order to make roads and human developments, which is called fragmentation. Habitats can become so degraded that they cannot support wildlife any longer, due to pollution and invasive species. If the removal of natural habitats does not slow, mass extinctions are bound to happen. The araripe manakin is a bird whose habitat has been minimized due to expansion of agriculture and recreational facilities. There are only about 779 individuals left...
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...de, 2006. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.
"The Leather Industry." PETA. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
"100 Most Threatened Species." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 11 Sept. 2012. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
The Matrix. Dir. Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski. Perf. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss. Warner Bros., 1999. DVD.
"Mountain Gorilla." AWF. African Wildlife Foundation, 2014. Web. 30 Mar. 2014.
"Terrestrial Protected Areas." The World Bank. The World Bank Group, 2014. Web. 27 Mar. 2014.
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...e slowly destroyed, effects would not only be seen at a local level but be noticeable on a global level. Mitigation areas should be established to alleviate any damage already done, and to prevent any further harm. These areas can help support fragile plant and animal life. Biodiversity is essential to our lives and the stewardship worldview should be used in this issue.
Time and time again it has been seen that human interaction with his/her environment and it’s ecosystems has shown to be increasingly arrogant and self-serving. These endless accounts are proven by the amount of important biological diversity that is being lost to the surrounding environment due to these threats of human development and population growth. There are two forms of these losses of diversity by human hand: direct and indirect. Direct losses would be the destruction of an area needed for human requirements be it social or economical. Examples of these losses would be housing, agriculture, and others. Indirect losses would be those caused by the destruction of an area also needed for the same requirements but the area’s commodities which are valued, water, food, land in general, is needed elsewhere. These losses are few in number compared with those of direct losses yet they are of the greatest importance. They are important because they involve the removal of resources of an area in which other inhabitants are dependent upon. A great example of this regrettable indirect expansion is the loss of the rich habitat of the area known as Owens Valley.
Landscape fragmentation contributes to loss of migratory corridors, loss of connectivity and natural communities, which all lead to a loss of biodiversity for a region. Conservation of biodiversity must include all levels of diversity: genetic, species, community, and landscape (CNHP 1995). Each complex level is dependent upon and linked to the other levels. In addition, humans are linked to all levels of this hierarchy. A healthy natural and human environment go hand in hand (CNHP 1995). An important step in conservation planning, in order to guarantee both a healthy natural environment as well as a healthy human environment, is recognizing the most endangered elements.
"Puppy Mills: Dogs Abused for the Pet Trade." PETA. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014. .
Through millions of years of evolution, well-balanced habitats have co-evolved to provide for the wide variety of species and their needs. Trees have adapted to weeds, weeds have adapted to the predation from herbivores, and so on up the food chain. Similar scenarios are seen throughout the world. Through the process of natural selection, specific species or broad species families will go extinct. However, these occurrences have largely been due to the natural flow and evolution of time. It wasn’t until recently that dominant species, such as humans, have taken the course of nature into their own hands.
Long-term survival of a species depends on its ability to adapt to changing environmental conditions (Murphy, 1994). Genetic diversity within a species, which has taken 3.5 billion years to evolve, makes adaptations to these changing environments possible. Unfortunately, the rate of extinction of genetically diverse organisms is rapidly increasing, thus reducing this needed biodiversity, largely due to the human impacts of development and expansion. What was an average of one extinction per year before is now one extinction per hour and extinct species numbers are expected to reach approximately one million by the year 2000 (WWW site, Bio 65). As a result governmental and societal action must be taken immediately!
Like many other industries, the farming industry has evolved into big business, “Animals on factory farms are regarded as commodities to be exploited for profit.” In each industry from clothing to instruments, the bosses want to make a profit. The more they can supply with the least amount of waste, the more profit they make. The same goes for factory farming. However instead of humans being the ones directly affected by big bosses, the animals are. They don’t have a voice, and can’t stand up for what is right or wrong. These animals are manipulated in every way to make a better profit. Factory farms mass produce animals for ...
Many of these causes could be prevented fairly easily. If people today would just follow some simple rules, none of these would be as big as they are now.
Imagine being trapped, abused, cramped, and caged all for the sake of either having your stripped flesh spoiled in a store, or thrown into the trash. Animals endure such conditions in factory farms across the world, suffering because so many people turn a blind eye to the things going on within the establishments that supply the world’s meat. It is not common knowledge for people to know about the abuse and inhumane actions that occur in these facilities, which are often called slaughterhouses and factory farms, but it should be. The conditions of animals and the incidents involving the well-being of the workers in these horrid affairs need to be known to the public and be shut down, even if most people would rather be kept in the dark about these types of controversies.
"Factory Farming: Cruelty to Animals." People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Web. 29 April. 2014.
In today’s technological society, where negative pictures of agriculture can go viral in a matter of minutes, programs such as Global Animal Partnership (G.A.P.) can be both a benefit and a detriment to the meat industry. Producers use groups such as G.A.P. to help combat the negative publicity of inhumane treatment to the American food supply, but also battle the pressure from these groups to take things a step farther. I will examine the pros and cons of animal activist groups and how they impact the American meat industry, but first, let’s get a further understanding of some of these animal right groups.
Countless of animals have been killed world wide for fur every year. The most most commonly are the minks. However , foxes, chinchillas, rabbits, even dogs and other animals are also the victims. In 2013, the animal right group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) release a shocking footage of a Chinese angora fur farm of a helpless rabbit being held down while its fur is ripped from its skin alive to make wearable fabrics. (Coleman, 2013) As the animas are raised in fur farms they live in a confinement and fall victims of psychologically resulting in leading to mental behaviors such as rushing, c...
There was a combination of different literature found that easily pertains to the issue addressed in this paper. This broadly classified literature includes the history and background of PETA’s organization, an analysis of the use of celebrity icons in the anti-fur campaign and the different perspectives and criticism depicted in their messages.
Imagine being beaten to near death and being painfully skinned alive. This scenario seems as if it would only happen in a horror film, but in reality it occurs on a daily basis. Looking at a fur coat through a store window or in a glossy magazine one may not realize that animals were beaten, electrocuted, crammed in filthy wire cages, or even hanged just to produce a simple fur coat. Every year millions of animals are treated wrongly and even killed for the fur on their backs. Society may think twice about wearing the corpse of an animal when one knows what really happens in the name of fashion. An immeasurable amount of suffering went into every fur trimmed jacket, leather belt, or wool sweater hanging in ones closet. To eradicate the unnecessary suffering of animals for fashion, wearing fur must be made illegal.
Nowadays it is common to read articles in newspapers and magazines regarding biodiversity issues. Human beings have been knowingly and unknowingly destroying biodiversity since their existence. Biodiversity is the measure of the variety of species of animals living in an area. Forests are usually areas with high biodiversity while deserts are the opposite. Human beings have always destroyed biodiversity either by deforestation, or by some other means. Biodiversity depletion is a natural phenomenon. But the present levels of biodiversity depletion are many times higher than the natural rate. Recently the levels of loss in biodiversity have started causing global concern. Some of the main causes for loss in biodiversity are alteration of habitats, increasing levels of pollution and human population growth.