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Is There A Solution To The Loss Of Biodiversity?
from: EnvironmentSense.comSadly, there is no one solution to the loss of biodiversity. And, even if such a solution existed, the adversarial nature of the relationships between governments, businesses, and environmentalists would probably keep it from being implemented.
Any solution to the loss of biodiversity must take multiple factors into account: How will this solution affect the animals of the region? The plant life? Humans? The region itself? Plants, animals, humans and the earth itself are intertwined in a number of complicated ecosystems, dependent on each other for survival. So far, thirty-four separate biodiversity hotspots have been identified, each with its own particular ecosystem, problems, and needs.
In addition to no one solution to the loss of biodiversity being a good fit for every biodiversity hotspot, there is the additional problem of convincing the local population of that area that preventing such loss is desirable. In many of these areas, day-to-day survival is an issue, and convincing the local government to consider what are clearly expensive, and long-term solutions to an immediate problem is almost impossible. Further, globalization has created the monster of one area being used to feed the demands of other continents and their peoples. Pesticides that are deemed to dangerous for use in the West are shipped to other continents further weakening the ecosystems there.
Governments need to start addressing issues such as climate change, water pollution, melting polar ice caps, and the rapidly escalating extinction of various species for any real advances toward a solution to the loss of biodiversity to be made. They can also stop the destruction of forest land through road building, to which governments usually add a colonization policy and/or concede large tracts of the deforested land to corporations for mineral extraction. The destruction of much of the Amazon rain forest and its indigenous species of plants, animals, and humans was accomplished by just such government actions.
One step toward a solution to the loss of biodiversity is education. There are many small steps that, in and of themselves, seem far too simple to work but which, if practiced by everyone, would go a long way toward solving some of the problems. Walking or bicycling instead of driving, using reusable carry-alls instead of plastic grocery bags, limiting the issuance of hunting and fishing licenses, using energy-efficient appliances, cutting down our dependence on fossil fuels are part of a solution to biodiversity that almost anyone can put into practice easily.
If we are ever to find a permanent, workable solution to the loss of biodiversity, we must give up our private agendas, and work together, putting the well-being of the whole race and, indeed, the whole planet ahead of any lesser goals.
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