Notes on Sustainability B2h

Sustainability
Main points:

• What is extinction?

• Why do animals and plants become extinct?

• How can we conserve animals and plants?

Whales as an example of an animal threatened with extinction.

Key words:

An extinct species is a plant or animal no longer found alive, e.g. Dodo, Mammoth,
Sabre Toothed Tiger, Quagga and (probably) the Black Rhinoceros.

An endangered species is a plant or animal in danger of becoming extinct, e.g. Panda

and Gorilla

In Britain, endangered species include Red Kites, Red Squirrels and Ospreys.

Reasons that species become extinct or endangered:

• climate change

• habitat destruction – e.g. Panda

• hunting – e.g. Dodo

• pollution

• competition – e.g. Red Squirrel

How endangered species can be helped:

• protecting habitats – e.g. Rainforests

• legal protection – e.g. Osprey, Whales

• education programmes

• captive breeding programmes – e.g. Panda

• creating artificial ecosystems – e.g. Zoological gardens

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 Notes on Sustainability B2h

Sustainability:

•A sustainable resource is one that is harvested or killed in such a way that it

never dies out – it can reproduce quickly enough to replace the lost numbers.

•Sustainable development is planning ahead so that replacement is guaranteed,

and the species is not endangered.

• Examples include fishing quotas and managed woodland.

Fishing quotas

• Scientists estimate how many fish there are and calculate how many of a
certain size can be fished out of the sea. Fishermen have to stay inside these
quotas.

Managed woodland

• Trees are cut down at the same rate as they are replaced. This is easier for fast
growing pines (softwood) than slow growing oak (hardwood). If cut in patches,
the animals can escape to nearby trees and survive (compare with “clear
felling”).

Why would you want to conserve biodiversity?

• to protect human food supplies

• to ensure less damage to food chains

• to be able to identify plants for medical purposes in the future

• for cultural reasons

From the information in the text, make notes on Whales.

• Include information about where they live, what they eat and why we hunt
them.

• Use the information from page 87 to describe why they are endangered and
what we should do to protect and conserve stocks of whales.