extracted from the Amazon is exported to be
The Loss of
Biodiversity
And Our Mistakes
Written By Arpita Mandal
Biological diversity, more commonly known
as biodiversity, is the variety of life forms in
an ecosystem. The life forms can be various
plants, animals, bacteria etc. Biodiversity is
crucial for ecosystem productivity, stability
and sustainability which are essential for
human wellbeing. However, biodiversity has
been disrupted in numerous ways which has
led to drastic environmental changes. These
changes include; deforestation and habitat
loss, pollution, poaching and global
warming. All these global topics contribute
to the loss and continuation of loss of
biodiversity which is done by humans.
DEFORESTATION AND
HABITAT LOSS
A study published in 2015 stated that 15.6
billion trees are cut down every year. A large
portion of this number comes from the
Amazon rainforest which is known as “the
lungs of our earth”. Research shows that
200,000 acres of land in the Amazon is
cleared and burned every day, which also
means that 150 acres are lost every minute.
Although 20 percent of the Amazon is
already gone, why are people still carrying
out these actions?
There is a 34 million population within the
Amazon which rely on the resources of the
rainforest however majority of the timber
made into furniture, paper, clothing, car
wax, hair dyes and many more. Many of
these products can be made of other
sustainable materials however, companies
are so blood hungry for the success and rise
in their businesses that they do not invest
their money on something which will
benefit our earth greatly.
Deforestation is one of the most prominent
reasons for habitat loss in the Amazon and
many other rainforests and forests
worldwide. Arboreal animals (animals
which live in trees) are most affected in
these situations. Even within Australia,
southeastern areas of Queensland
experience immense deforestation which
disrupt and kill many animals such as
koalas, phalangeriformes, various birds and
more. This affects the biodiversity within
these ecosystems as well as disturbing the
food chain.
POLLUTION
Pollution can be found almost anywhere. It
is in the air as air pollution and in the
ground as groundwater pollution. It is most
commonly found in bodies of water as water
pollution. All these forms of contamination
are caused by humans in most cases. Lots of
the products we use in our everyday lives
are harming the earth such as plastic bottles
we drink out of and the cars and transport
we use to get around.
According to research from the Eco
Coalition and EPA (Environmental
Protection Agency), waste products from
factories occupy 50 percent of air pollution.
Also from the EPA’s research it was found Shark fin soup derived from Chinese cuisine
that 75 percent of carbon monoxide is made from the fins of sharks. The rest of
pollution in the U.S is from the usage of the shark was not used and therefore
motor vehicles. However, this is only wasted. Fishermen would capture sharks of
statistics for air pollution. Referring to the variety, slice off their fins and dump the
Plastic Pollution Organisation, 8 million species back into the ocean to drown in
metric tons of plastic end up in our oceans pain. This caught the attention of media for
every year. how immoral the action was and thousands
of sharks had been killed as this soup was a
This alone is very harmful to us as humans delicacy in Chinese culture.
as well as the millions of sea life species
which are dying from the pollution found in Biodiversity in our ecosystems are dying
their ecosystems. This causes great and there are many more reasons as to why
unbalance for the environments of not just then there are stated in this article.
sea animals but also land animals which However, it has to be taken into
now have to live with an unstable ecosystem consideration that we are the ones to blame
thanks to our bad habits. for such losses as people prefer to improve
the quality of their lives rather than
improving the lives for others around
themselves, humans or not.
POACHING
Poaching is the killing of animals for their
unique features such as, skins, teeth and
bones, or even as a sport. Poaching is a great
debate which has been discussed for years
however hunters still take part in it.
Although many rules and regulations have
been made for this topic, it is still being
done. One of the reasons poaching is so
common is for the animals skin or body
parts to be made as displays. Though it is
known that this is very immoral and
unethical, it has been a fashion trend for
many years to wear expensive skins
extracted from tigers, lions, leopards and
many other animals. They could be made
from much more sustainable and ethical
materials and save crucial parts of our
wildlife.

One of the most famous stories portrayed in

the media was the Shark Fin Soup story.