WEEK 4/5

This week we talked a lot about biodiversity and the impacts that humans have. I impact biodiversity in many different ways. I use many things that effect animals and their habitats from the home I live in to the amount of pollution I contribute to. These things lead to habitat loss and degradation or destruction. I also may indirectly support acts that are dangerous to species from overkill. I eat things like Sushi or seafood that may be improperly caught. It would be smart of me to look into where my food comes from and be knowledgeable about its history. Learning about how different species are introduced in non-native places was really interesting. It’s funny to see that blackberries were not a native plant in the U.S. yet it has grown rapidly across the country. Learning about how disease is introduced is interesting but also somewhat scary. It makes sense that this would be a factor that would lead to the depletion of species. It is important for me to understand these contributing factors that influence biodiversity so that I can do my best to try and use and/by products and goods that come from a healthy and safe place.
Species extinction is unfortunate but also a natural piece of the world to a certain extent. It occurs when things are off balance and the environment does not match it’s living organisms. Despite nature’s ability to cause some necessary extinction, humans have played the biggest role in causing species extinction. Often it is a result of human abuse on the environment and it’s resources and this should be definitely focused on. We should do our very best to try to not cause any more extinctions in the world because as we know every organism is important in biodiversity and holds a necessary niche. Humans need to try to reduce their impacts on biodiversity and the environment as much as possible.
I was able to get Kamut at PCC, which I had never tried before. I thought this tasted pretty good and it seemed healthy for me. Eating new and different types of food are helpful to maintaining biodiversity because it widens the amount of choices that I can eat from. It comes from a different place and different plants and helps balance the options and choices for foods.
Zoos can be very beneficial to animals and bio diversity. People can take animals from the wild that are in need of help and treat them. Zoos can also be helpful connectedness where animals can reproduce and then set back into the wild. A good point that was brought up in class that I had never thought about was about how people form a connection with the animals they see at zoos and tend to care more for the animals. A downside to zoos could be if the animals are not given proper habitats and are unhappy with their lives or if they are not taken properly care of. I think for the most part though, zoos are great and helpful and the animals really do benefit from being there.