Blog Topic: Many scientists consider humans as the most invasive species, as humans can greatly change an environment and impact living things that reside there. Are we being stewards of the world? Take a look at an issue in which human intervention has positively or negatively affected the biodiversity of our ecosystems.
Since I did not really understand what invasive species meant, I went to search up on Google, in which it gave me the answer! An invasive species is a species occurring, as a result of human activities, beyond its accepted normal distribution and which threatens valued environmental, agricultural or other social resources by the damage it causes according to the Australian department of the Environment. From seeing the first sentence of the topic, I was unhappy but this was expected. As there are many great people out there who care and do good, there are also many who don’t care. One of Norbert Wiener’s has said, “We have modified our environment so radically that we must now modify ourselves to exist in this new environment.” Since, we are treating the environment bad; we are getting karma in which it may affect our later generations and even now. Even though many people know that they are harming our environment, they usually continue doing it because they are lazy or do not have the effort to do something good that they ‘think’ will not harm them until it happens.
We, Humans consume nearly a quarter of Earth’s natural productivity. There are many people who live differently in the environments, since there are around 6.6 billion people around the world we use up a lot of land. In some places, we increase the land’s productivity measured as the amount of plant life based on the food chain by adding water and fertilizer. However, as a whole we significantly decrease the Earth’s biological productivity. Many cities occupy large land in which had been a very fertile land. We usually try to boost our quality of life, we get more than we need and we consume around 2/3 of the biological productivity that would have been available. The other species would only get 1/3 of the natural productivity. As our population increases, it is bound to strain the ecosystems even worse. Even if we tried to increase agriculture and fertilizing the land, it would just add to strain by boosting erosion and the nutrients run off creating toxic effects into the ocean.
What does it mean to be a steward of the world? According to the Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, stewardship means the conducting, supervising, or managing of something also the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care. God has given us the environment and the world we live on. Many people are just killing the environment instead of thanking it and giving back. People usually use the environment or change the environments for their own profits, not thinking what will happen to the environment afterwards. I believe that humans are not being stewards of the world. Since they were born, they use the environment and take most of their sources from the environment to use for themselves and not giving much back. However, we must believe that we can change even though we cannot control other’s we are not powerless. People can individually examine their lifestyle and change for the better. We all have to think about our future and our future generations, our actions will affect on the generations after us greatly. We must change our attitudes and actions to achieve environmental success. Even saying this and thinking about this doesn’t change, we must actually put our powers to use.
On the other hand, there are some people who do care and is taking action to our environment like the Steward of the Earth which is a non-profit organization. Their mission statement of Stewards of the Earth is to empower, educate, and motivate individuals toward integrating their spiritual beliefs with their efforts in creating a sustainable future for humanity and all of life. They believe it is their role as living beings to live responsible caretakers and stewards of God’s creation.
Uintah Mountains, this photo illustrates what humans could lose unless they act to preserve open spaces.
Humans usually do not think of the consequences to what might happen after their actions. We do usually do not think about human wastes and what global warming is doing to our plant and animal life. If something does not affect them directly they will give little or no attention to it until it happens. However, losing biodiversity due to our actions also has frightening affects on us. This does not benefit us or biodiversity; instead it gives a greatly negative impact on both of us. If biodiversity continues to decrease, less food will be available to sustain life. Everything in biological life is interconnected just like the food chain. Species contribute great medicines for humans which may be life saving, however less species means less life saving medicines. There are probably many more species out there that we have never seen so we must protect biodiversity. We also get most of our materials which we need from biological life. Biodiversity also helps us moderate carbon production. We are taking too much of everything from our environment without taking time to understand or know what we are even doing.
Sources:
http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org/wordpress/2007/10/14/humans-invasive-species/
http://fastingandfeasting.wordpress.com/2007/09/20/becoming-a-good-steward-of-the-earth-or-how-i-stopped-sticking-my-head-in-the-sand-and-faced-the-reality-of-global-warming/
http://main.nc.us/stewardsoftheearth/
http://www.alive.com/5328a16a2.php?subject_bread_cramb=168
http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:zzNVuUMM0oYJ:planetsave.com/blog/2008/05/19/human-interaction-with-nature-benefits-of-biodiversity/+human+interactions+with+biodiversity&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk
By: Aristo Kwok
Posted on:
http://aflametotheearthbeneath.blogspot.com/2009/09/diversity-of-living-things-why-me-worry.html?showComment=1257667757973#c772918185997590887
http://dejedj.blogspot.com/2009/09/unit-2-wellat-least-humanity-got-what.html
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