lord of the files
Science 10 ecology project
① Extinction of species
 A species becomes extinct when its last representative dies.
 Extinction is forever - Once a species become extinct will never been seen again.
 This has happened quite a lot of times on Earth.
 Due, in many cases, to colonization and hunting by humans.
 People feel that extinction is very sad, and try to protect life-forms on the brink of extinction by naming them "endangered species" and being nice to them.
 Each living organism which humans force into extinction is a tragedy for nature.
 Over fishing or excessive hunting by humans can reduce the populations of certain organisms on Earth.
 Animals are hunted for their fur, meat or other valuable parts of their bodies.
http://www.galactic-guide.com/articles/2R84.html http://www.saburchill.com/hfns02/chapters/chap019.html 1. lost of habitat
 Sometimes human activities destroy the habitats of living organisms. The habitat of an organism is its home: where it lives, feeds, and reproduces.
 Many species have become extinct because humans have destroyed or modified their habitats, polluted their environment
 Human influences on the environment can be considered as being influences on the habitats of living organisms.
 Any time humans alter the hydrosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere or biosphere, habitats are modified
 Survival can become more challenging (or even impossible) for the organisms which live there.
 When hunters miss their target, the lead shot which comes out of the gun is left behind in nature. Lead is a toxic metal.
 The main component of a panda's diet is bamboo. Bamboo forests have been cut down by humans for centuries.
http://www.saburchill.com/hfns02/chapters/chap020.html http://www.saburchill.com/hfns02/chapters/chap021.html 2. lost of biodiversity
 This collection of vastly varied living organisms is our planet's biodiversity.
 The richest parts of the planet's biodiversity are also the least well-known. It is estimated that 97% of all species on Earth live in the oceans below the zone where sunlight penetrates the water.
 On the continents, it is estimated that 50% of all land-dwelling species live in tropical rainforests.
 Throughout the history of the Earth, as new species evolve, other species become extinct. Overall, as time has progressed, there are more and more different kinds of organisms.
 Human activities today are exterminating species up to 10 times faster than they would naturally disappear.
 As the numbers of people increase, the numbers of species decrease.
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http://www.saburchill.com/hfns02/chapters/chap024f.html
3. Introduction of exotic species
 Humans have helped to spread many species across the world.
 More often, however, species are introduced accidentally and have a negative impact.
 Plant species used in agriculture, for example, have been deliberately introduced to new areas by humans.
 Sometimes wild animals are introduced for hunting as a sport.
... the harmful effects that we will experience later on. It is important that we do our best to preserve the incredible natural landscape we’ve been given, and not destroy it rapidly, as we have tended to do.
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.
On a website called Drought Disasters, sponsored by Browing University, it was written “the seeds of the Dust Bowl may have been sown during the early 1920s. However, overproduction of wheat coupled with the Great Depression led to severely reduced market prices” (Black Sunday). In the ICE case study number 288 Noel Sanders writes, “The region of the Dust Bowl was an area most affected by the drought - Kansas, southeastern Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Northern Texas. But a much larger areas, all the way to the east coast felt the impact” (Sander). With the help of new mech...
The Dust Bowl was one of the hardest times in America in the 1930’s. The Dust Bowl was in the top 5 largest environmental catastrophes. It was harsh winds blowing dirt, sand, and dust up into the air making
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife or feral animals, by humans for food and survival (“Hunting”, 2011). Hunting has been traced back to the beginning of man. In American culture, hunting has always been a way of life. The Native Americans and early American settlers hunted to survive, that is so they did not die of starvation, just in case that is in any way confusing. Today however, puny-minded individuals see it not as a way of life, but as a thirst for blood and murder. In order to survive, men had to hunt to provide food for their families and communities, and if unsuccessful, they would go hungry. Their survival depended upon what they hunted and killed, leaving nothing to waste. Every part of the animal was used from the bones to the meat to the pelt, to satisfy the needs of survival. Men had to be creative to outsmart these cunning animals; therefore, a wide variety of weapons were use...
She believes that their distaste for Tartuffe stems from his ability to condemn their sins and point out their moral flaws. At Dorines’ intimation that Madame only spends her time so harshly criticizing the world around her due to her fear of abandonment, Madame Pernelle takes her leave, reminding them that they should count themselves fortunate to have such a holy and blessed man such as Tartuffe present among them. Upon her departure, the remaining family puzzles at how their grandmother, as well as their father, could be so blind to Tartuffe’s insincerity, recounting the many instances in which Tartuffe deceived Orgon and Madame Pernelle with his charms. As Cleante leaves to rest, Damis asks her if she would inquire as to the status of Mariane’s marriage to Valere because, should they not wed, Damis would then not be able to marry Valere’s
After tracking down the origins of his blue jeans, Timmerman meets Nari, a factory worker in Cambodia. Timmerman describes Nari’s living conditions as poor and crowded. Nari, and seven other girls, live in an 8’x12’ room with no air conditioning, and a squat toilet walled off in the corner. To gain a semblance of privacy, the girls use a sheet hanging from a sagging cord in the back corner as a changing room. Four of the girls sleep on a bamboo bed and the other four girls sleep on the floor. (Where Am I Wearing? pp.99-103) Timmerman, then, writes of his meeting with Nari and her roommates.
Accepting the doctrine of Animal Rights can result in the extinction of native animals, and also cause adverse effects on the environment. Another consequence of accepting the doctrine of Animal Rights is that humans will no longer be able to control foreign predators (pests) via traps, hunting, fishing and poisons. Many foreign animals have been introduced to different ecosystems over the course of history, and is very likely to have caused many extinctions of indigenous species. This occurs because they compete with native animals for habitat and food, and sometimes introduce new diseases. Maintaining the indigenous species and thus biodiversity is important because animals depend on each other in a food web, and an extinction in one can result in many more following. For example, the introduction of possums to New Zealand in 1837, has led to the extinction of many indigenous bird species such as the Bush wren, Laughing owl and the Native thrush. Another reason is that the extinction of animals has negative flow-on effects on the environment. The diversity stability hypothesis states that biodiversity acts as a stabilizing factor in ecosystems, and thus highly diverse ecosystems can act to reduce impacts of changes in the environment (Thibaut, 2012). We should therefore probably, not support human rights, as the elimination of pest control is very likely to result in many indigenous species to go extinct, and the resultant reduction in biodiversity will impair its ability to buffer out the environmental changes caused by humans, such as climate change. Additionally, because the reduction in biodiversity has been caused by humans in the first place, it is probably our responsibility to minimize the harmful
In the United States today, hunting isn’t as popular in populated places as it is in rural places. Primarily because humans have learned to keep the most needed animals such as cows, pigs and chickens, contained, but also because there are not as many wild animals in these populated places as there is in more unpopulated areas. For the hunters who hunt to survive, they not only hunt for the meat on the animals bones, they also hunt for the furs and pelts that the animals have. The reason hunters hunt an animal for its fur is because they can use them to trade for supplies they may need such as money, ammunition or anything they cannot make themselves. If a hunter is hunting an animal mainly for its fur, they may use a trap instead of...
Our world is often referred to as our home. We need it to survive, and it provides us with the resources that we need to live our lives as comfortably as we do. Yet, we don’t often take the time to consider our impact on our environment. Let’s say our earth is “literally” a house, could you live in a home that has been routinely and permanently damaged, sprayed full of insecticides, and even torn apart for someone’s personal use? This Idea is represented in Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring”.
A majority of hunting occurs on private land, where laws that are suppost to protect wildlife are often inapplicable and difficult to enforce. On private lands that are set up as for-profit hunting reserves, hunters can pay to kill native and exotic species in “canned hunts.” These animals may be native to the area,raised elsewhere and brought in, or purchased from individuals who are trafficking unwanted or surplus animals from zoos and circuses. These Animals are hunted and killed for the sole purpose of giving hunter a “trophy."
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.
of species due to a variety of causes. Included is out competition, depletion of resources
For centuries, humans have been hunting for food; but in today’s society, hunting is no longer necessary. Advances in the modern world gave people access to Grocery stores and Supermarkets where they can purchase meat instead of going into the woods to shoot down and slaughter an animal in order to feed their families. There is nothing wrong with hunting for food and there may even be times when hunting is necessary for human survival. Unfortunately, because hunting for survival is no longer the norm, much of today 's hunting is done for sport, trophies, or just for the rush of a kill. When, in reality, sport hunting is cruel, unnecessary, and should be banned globally.
In Wilcove’s article, it is examined within the 50 states the four types of animals being discussed such as mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians with the possibility of becoming extinct or critically imperiled determined by The Nature Conservancy (TNC). David Wilcove states that, “A total of 2,490 imperiled species, subspecies, and populations fit these criteria” (Wilcove, Rothstein, Dubow, Phillips, & Losos, 1998, p. 607). In response, within these 2,490 animals at risk the science of these problems is that their home is destroyed, and when introduced to a new environment they cannot adapt to the normal life in the same manner. Native animals cannot compete with the new species discovered and...