Why Conserve Biodiversity?

Climate change is seriously affecting and is seriously going to affect the biodiversity on Earth. These questions must be asked... Why should we care about biodiversity? Why should we work to conserve it? There are many reasons why natural biodiversity should be conserved:

-The Essentials

Even the simplest of things that some people think has nothing to do with biodiversity is sustained by life. Through photosynthesis, plants provide Earth with a supply of oxygen that many organisms need in order to survive. Water, the most important ingredient for life as we know it, gets cleaned and sustained by biological processes.

--(SUN OVER THE OCEAN)

For example, the roots of some trees will make their way into water that is nearby and absorb it. If there is a forest near a water system, the water will be filtered and cleaned all year. Also, without these forests, flash floods may occur. (Biodiversity Matters 20 Questions)

-Food

All living things need an energy source to survive. The loss of biodiversity will affect all species because they may lose the species that they get their energy from (eat). Without a process of energy transfer from species to species, more and more will then also become extinct.


-Medicine

"Forty percent of all prescriptions written today are composed from the natural compounds found in different species." --(Why Conserve Biodiversity?)

--(MEDICINE)

Having a variety of species also provides us with a variety of medicine. There are many species in the world that have not been yet discovered by man that may also be beneficial. What if some extremely rare herb was growing in a jungle somewhere that man hadn't studied yet? What if this herb provided extremely useful medicinal properties? The loss of species will directly affect the medicine that we use and the more that go extinct, the less natural medicines we will have.



-Leisure Activities and Recreation

We enjoy going out for a walk and looking at all the different types of trees and the birds in them, we enjoy going for a swim in the lake and watching the fish and the turtles, we enjoy watching the Discovery Channel or Natural Geographic and being astonished by the strange and beautiful life forms that we have on planet Earth. With the loss of biodiversity, Earth will slowly become less and less natural and beautiful.

--(CANOE)

-Earth's Natural Services

Biodiversity provides us with natural services that are essential to continuing life. Biodiversity effects nutrient and water cycles greatly which are very important to maintain. Microorganisms create the soils that we use by breaking down parent materials. Biodiversity also effects the Earth's climate greatly (discussed later in this entry). Life would not be as we know it today without these natural services. (Sandra Diaz)


-Jobs and Lifestyles

Many jobs will be lost and job industries will have to change drastically if biodiversity is not conserved. For example, families or villages that have been fishermen for generations might no have a specific fish type to sell, eat, or use anymore. All industries will be affected as well.

--(FISHERMAN)

-Natural Balance

"But I'll tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you'll come to understand that you're connected with everything. "

--Alan Watts

When I think biology (the study of living organisms), the word that comes to my mind first is 'connected'. Every single species is connected in some way to the other. If one species gets affected by something, chances are that it will affect all other species that it is connected with.

-The Help of Wild Animals

Having a diverse amount of wild animals will help in many ways other then the ones previously stated. When carnivores eat herbivores, they are preserving the balance between herbivores and plants. Herbivores are related to the success of vegetation. Insects serve as pollinators for plant species. Birds, frogs, ants, spiders, and dragon flies control pest populations that could threaten forests or crops. There are many other reasons why the act of living makes wild animals so important. (Biodiversity Matters 20 Questions)

--(LION)

-Climate

Photosynthesis is the act of plants, algae, and some species of bacteria producing organic compounds from carbon dioxide in the air. A waste product of photosynthesis is oxygen. Having many different species of plants will put more oxygen into the air and less CO2. If many species of plants were to die because of human action, then there would be less oxygen in the air. This would make matters worse for global warming. Global warming could also kill more plant species, causing a snowball effect of climate change.


--(DNA)
-Genetic Material


The vast amount of species that we know of all took millions of years of evolution to become what they are today. When a species dies, its unique genetic material dies out with it. This unique DNA could have went on in the species through future generations and then this species would have continued to evolve. Every time a species dies out because of human activity, we are wasting genetic material.