by Ann Nelson-Russell

Created on: September 14, 2008

Biodiversity and the Effects Caused by Mankind

Biodiversity is an important factor in sustaining and maintaining human life. One definition found from Human Health of the Great Lakes expresses biodiversity as, "The variety of life and its processes, including the variety of living organisms, the genetic differences among them, the communities and ecosystems in which they occur, and the ecological and evolutionary processes that keep them functioning, yet ever changing and adapting". Biodiversity is defined or explained in many different ways, but the connection to plant, animal, and human life remains the same. Human beings often take many things for granted, unfortunately without protecting what nature has to offer, humans may have taken their own well-being for granted.

The planet Earth is the only planet known to man that has all of the features necessary to sustain life. The natural resources that are available to mankind include, the air we breathe, the water we drink and use for multiple purposes, and the fertile soil needed to produce food and crops. North America is home to a small percentage, about ten to fifteen percent of the total known species in the world. The actions and advances in the desires and greed of many, along with the technology and industry improvements have imposed some difficult challenges for many species.

The largest threat to biodiversity is the accelerated pace of the elimination or extinction rate of our planet's species. Extinction of species is not something new, nothing lives forever. What is new and alarming is the rate at which the extinctions are occurring. Mankind's behavior, attitudes, and actions have caused the extinction rate to rapidly increase. The current estimates of eliminations are close to twenty-seven species every single day.

One could argue that mankind cannot possibly be blamed for such loses, after all species will eventually die and evolve in a natural progression. Some species will die out and evolve in their own time period and other species will succumb to natural disasters. But far more species will be lost forever due to humankind's behaviors and lack of concern. It is much easier to think that people just do not know or understand how they impact and threaten the sustainment of the world's many different biomes, than to think they just do not care.

A species habitat and how well that habitat remains undisturbed can be an important factor to the species survival rate. Man's desire to do and go everywhere

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