Ms. Sidra Hanif, Green Blogger, Dept. of Environmental science, GCWUS
Nowadays loss of biodiversity is seen as a major problem globally. Loss of biodiversity is the reduction of variety of life ( plants or animal species ) on earth. We are living currently a biodiversity crisis, lossing species on a daily basis and 100 time faster than other natural circumstances. Sceintists estimate that approximately 150-200species are extinct every 24 hours. According to kew royal botanic gardens 21% of plants worldwide are in danger of extinction.
Biodiversity is crucial for human survival because they are totally dependent on biodiversity for their needs (social, economic, cultural ) and for maintaining ecosystem. Biodiversity loss can have significant direct human health impacts if ecosystem services are no longer able to meet social needs. Indirectly, changes in ecosystem services affect livelihoods, income, local migration and, on occasion, may even cause political contest.
The main cause of the loss of biodiversity is the influence of human beings ( urban sprawl, population growth, introduction of exotic species, modified territory, overexploitatio, pollution, climatechange ) on the world’s ecosystem and deeply altered the environment.
The IPBES assessment has shown the strong interrelationship between climate change, the loss of biodiversity and human wellbeing. Climate change has been identified as a primary driver of biodiversity loss. Also the loss of biodiversity come to climate change, for example when we destroy forests we emit carbon dioxide, the major “human-produced” greenhouse gas.
So what we can do to mitigate this problem? Being environmentalist I suggest some effective strategies to solve this problem.
ü First of all we should change themselves then advise others like government and public to make and adopt policies
ü Every individual can help by trying to live simply ( sustainably ) and endeaver to leave as small a footprint on the planet as they can.
ü By making laws (u.s endangered species act 1973) and policies and their implementation we can overcome this problem. By Adoption Policies that are wildlife friendly (and which are people friendly), policies that put nature and ecosystem services at the heart of decision making.
ü If we are to save nature and, ultimately, ourselves, then it will take a global zeal like we have never seen, and zeal to work together and ‘knocking down walls’ rather than building them.
ü Awareness will change our behaviour, attitude, habits. We might be able to invent a machine that strips CO2 from the atmosphere but is it really better than trees? Trees also sequester CO2 and provide food, fuel, shelter from the elements, flood resilience, soil stability, habitat for wildlife and are a joy to witness.