3 Reasons Biodiversity Is Important To Man
|
Photo courtesy: John Smart
|
Philippine Eagle severely threatened by habitat loss“Biodiversity is important to Man” I stated, during a discussion with business acquaintances last week. I was shocked that more than half the group asked, “Why?”
Here are the 3 reasons why biodiversity is important to Man.
A recent article in the Manila Bulletin highlighted the plight of bird species in the Philippines. The lead-in to the article “PH birds caught between discovery, extinction” tells us that there were 602 bird species recorded in the Philippines during 2012, of which at least 170 species are endemic (found nowhere else on Earth); this figure of 602 bird species in the Philippines was “up 5.6% from [year] 2000”. The article goes on to point out that this increase in reported bird species is due to the increased interest in birds in the Philippines and not an increase in their numbers or diversity. In other words, there are more people interested to record bird sightings in recent years but there are probably actually fewer bird species present than ever before.
Habitat loss, especially the loss of old-growth rainforest, is the main contributor to the loss of biodiversity in wild bird species. According to reported official figures: from 1934 to 1988, the Philippines lost a staggering 9.8 million hectares of forest land (approximately 1/3 of the entire country). The actual figure is almost certainly much larger and forest-thinning (the selective felling of trees in old-growth forest) certainly threatens almost all of the remaining forest areas.
Habitat loss is the main threat to all animal, plant and bird species worldwide and is the largest factor in the loss of biodiversity. This fact was actually (some say surprisingly) made into a Hollywood movie, staring Sean Connery: Medicine Man (1992) . . . if you did not watch it then, watch Medicine Man now.
The point made in Medicine Man is that: Man’s ignorance, as he rushes to reap the profits to be made from delivering the benefits of development to the largest numbers of people on our little blue planet – by providing manufactured rewards for a day’s labor – is actually creating the circumstance of Man’s own destruction as a species. By example . . .
Just within the past month it has been announced that a cure for some forms of cancer, that affect people everywhere on the planet, has been discovered in Tasmania, Australia. The “cure” came from observation of people working in a processing facility where they prepare Tasmanian blacklip abalone for sale. The observation was that people who had some forms of skin cancer before they started working at the facility, were cured after a few months of employment and after coming into contact with the blood from the abalone they were processing. It is a unique compound in the blood of the Tasmanian blacklip abalone that has been isolated as the active ingredient that can be extracted as the cancer cure.
The Tasmanian blacklip abalone only exist in the waters off Tasmania and its existence is directly due to its survival, over a period of eons, in a unique ocean habitat. Without biodiversity there would be no Tasmanian blacklip abalone and no cancer cure.
If you look back through the years you will find many thousands of instances where Man has studied the animals, plants and birds around the World, and, in doing so, has isolated the natural-occurring ingredients for almost all of the modern cures that enable our continued enjoyment of long life and survival as a species. In fact, the entire pharmaceutical industry is based on stealing Mother Nature’s secrets (typically from indigenous peoples), isolating the active ingredients and then selling them to Modern Man for vast profit. Without biodiversity none of these cures would have been available for Man to uncover and isolate and the pharmaceutical industry would have floundered after 1928.
Some would say that neither, curing what ails Man nor, providing enjoyment of long life, is as important as perfecting the systems and processes that drive the development of the modern World, and therefore biodiversity is unimportant also. To those people, who lack holistic intelligence, I would cite the thousands of examples of how studying biodiversity has allowed Man to perfect almost every aspect of modern development, through observation of Mother Nature’s fantastic innovation born of the necessity to survive in diverse habitats. By example . . .
Within the past month also, it has been announced that, from observation of the unique skills of the archer fish (also found in the Philippines: go kayaking in Busuanga, Palawan) new designs for certain manufacturing processes, involving fluid dynamics, can now be perfected. Without biodiversity there would be no archer fish and the perfection of these manufacturing processes would have to wait another epoch or two before Man was able to work out the physics that archer fish have perfected through eons of needing to survive in a challenging habitat.
The little blue planet that we live on contains the product of many epochs of Mother Nature’s experimentation in survival – biodiversity. ALL of the animals, plants and birds, and fishes in the sea, are here because they have evolved a means of survival that is unique to the place where they live – their habitat. This biodiversity, if studied wisely, offers Man the keys to His own survival in His own manufactured habitats.
If Man removes the habitats that the products of Mother Nature’s biodiversity have earned the right to survive in, then Man’s inability to observe and learn, and thence intelligently employ the results, will surely create the circumstance for Man’s own destruction as a species.
Help Man Survive
You can help Man survive by protecting the habitats that allow biodiversity to continue to flourish. Here are four things you can do to help Man survive:
- plant indigenous trees instead of cutting old-growth forest;
- use renewable energy sources instead of fossil fuels;
- take your garbage home with you instead of throwing it onto the land or into the sea; and,
- write to manufactured food processors, tell them to stop using palm oil