Images of slaughtered elephants and burning rain forests capture people's attention, but the big problem—the overall loss of biodiversity—is not as obvious but highly dangerous.
Billions of years of evolution have produced a world in which every organism's welfare is intertwined with that of countless other species. A recent study of Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior offers an example.
Snowy winters encourage wolves to hunt in larger packs, so they kill more moose. The decline in moose population allows more balsam fir saplings to live. The fir trees pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, which in turn influences the climate. It's all connected.
To meet the demands of the growing population, we are clearing land for housing and agriculture, replacing diverse wild plants with just a few varieties of crops, transporting plants and animals, and introducing new chemicals into the environment.
At least 30,000 species vanish every year from human activity, which means we are living in the midst of one of the greatest mass extinctions in Earth's history. Stephen Kellert, a social ecologist at Yale University, sees a number of ways people might upset the delicate checks and balances in the global ecology. New patterns of disease might emerge ( #8), he says, or pollinating insects might become extinct, leading to widespread crop failure.
Or as with the wolves of Isle Royale, the consequences might be something we'd never think of, until it's too late.
Next up-Biotech Disaster
Replies