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Biodiversity and its Role in the Global Warming Trend
Biodiversity is one of those important topics that often get lost in the shuffle when the subject of global warming comes up. Most people, upon hearing or discussing aspects of global warming, are too rapt in the nightmarish projections to think about the issue of biodiversity, although it is really central to the topic.
First, what is biodiversity? Biodiversity basically refers to the biological wealth of species on this planet. In other words, biodiversity is a term used to describe and encapsulate the total diversity of living things that make up life on this planet, including all the plants, animals and microbes that inhabit planet earth. In whole, the term biodiversity
describes over 1.75 million species that have been sorted, described and classified on this planet. Believe it or not, scientists believe that there can be almost as many as 100 million species that have not yet been identified.
Unfortunately, many of the species on this earth are rapidly disappearing, which means that we are losing our biodiversity on earth. Just as simply do not know how many species are in existence on earth, we also cannot be sure how many we are losing. Still, we know for sure that we are losing our biodiversity because of pollution, habitat alteration, and now, because of global warming. But why should we care so much about losing the earth's biodiversity? There are a lot of reasons why losing biodiversity is such an unfortunate thing.
One of the reasons why losing our biodiversity is bad is because all the plant and animals that we use for domestic purposes either in agriculture or in the wild are needed in order to introduce new genes into our domestic species. This keeps many domesticate species vigorous and capable of adapting. Another valuable reason to cherish our biodiversity is that most of medicines, including most of our prescriptive drugs, were originally derived from ingredients found in the wild. That is, we need biodiversity in order to make the best medicines, the best foods and maintain even domesticated species healthy and vigorous.
Some scientists, environmentalist, and stewards of the earth also argue that there are plenty of moral reasons why we should value and protect our biodiversity. For instance, they argue that human beings have a moral responsibility for preserving a wealth of species alive and healthy for future generations to be able to enjoy.
How does the recent global warming tend come into all of this? The insurgence of global warming threatens to damage the earth's biodiversity. According to researchers and scientists, global warming is causing the earth to gradually warm up. If there projections prove true, that means that many species will not be able to survive the global climate shift that global warming implies. With some places getting wetter and warmer winters, species that depend on cold, dry winters may not be able to survive. In other areas, the frequency and intensity of storms may threaten the biodiversity there. With so many delicate ecosystems making up the world, global warming threatens to have a serious impact on the earth' biodiversity as we know it.
The earth is built upon millions of very fragile ecosystems that could be destroyed or threatened by the impact of global warming. It is up to halt the progress of global warming to make sure that all of our ecosystems may be preserved. Without the preservation of the earth's many ecosystems, we simply cannot make sure that we can protect the biodiversity on earth as well. The world must come together in order to ensure that the worlds biodiversity is not wiped out by the effects of global warming.
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