Weekly Response 13

Levester Williams
Reed Esslinger-Payet, GSI
ADP III

As a child, you are taught about the food chain. One sees how animal life works at a fundamental level since they are consuming to pass on their genes to the next generation. However, if one animal is taken away from a food chain, the rest of the chain disrupts such as a gear in complex machinery disrupts the work of the machine. Learning that 12 percent to 15 percent is the estimated guess that is needed to preserve a complete system from collapsing , I now realize the importance of having a diverse biota in the world and preserving the animals. Human cannot fully realize the macrocosm of biodiversity since our knowledge of the existence of animal may be limited to as little as five percent (Trumpey). Therefore, human impact on the environment may not be fully calculated to how much humans are destroying other life forms. These animals that may become extinct support the balance of all biota: they provide us with the nutrients for our soil, the growth of forested areas, etc. Even if our impact on the environment may efface one species of a plant or animal, it may have catastrophic effects since an organism may only consume that one plant, such as the Koala bear only eats eucalyptus leaves.

Unsustainable practices, such as deforestation, deprive indigenous organisms of their habitat and food resources; thus, there is more competition for limited food source and shelters. Now, I understand fully the reason to preserve the forested area of the Amazon Rain forest since most of our biodiversity our located near the equator. Even if organisms are able to adapt to the environment over a long period of time, the constant changing that occurs in the environment due to our effort hinders the adaptive ability of all life forms since no organisms is able to evolve at such rapid pace besides single-cell organisms. Even the introduction of new species to environment can hinder biodiversity. Since foreign species may prey on indigenous species that have yet to evolve to avoid such predator, the foreign species may outcompete the native species. For example, the introduction of the fox and rabbit to Australian frontier has created a plethora of environmental concerns since the fox has no predator there and the rabbit multiplies at a exponential rate (Diamond 54). Consumerism has effects since the materials we consume without hesitance may come directly from the environment of some endangered species. We extract material from habitat while we know we are leaving much damage to that habitat. If I want to become a responsible global citizen, I must realize that my actions, whether it is consuming material or producing waste, affect the biodiversity on the earth.

Works Cited
Diamond, Jared M. Collapse How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York: Viking, 2005. Print.
Trumpey, Joe. "Biodiversity." Art & Design III: Technology and Environment. Univeristy of Michigan Ann Abor, Stamps Auditorium, Ann Arbor. 2 Dec. 2009. Lecture.