No one denies to the fact that changes occur in the earth’s environment naturally as the time goes by. However, this process has picked up pace ever since the rate of human influences on the environment has increased.
Climate change allegedly by humans is caused by a number of things. We know that the effect that climate has on extinction is very significant. It is because of us that even the bio-diverse Earth is unable keep up with these environmental changes. The species are unable to cope up these severe weather conditions, or the change in chemical composition of their surroundings.
Another fact that has been studied and observed is that the beginning of human industry tends to be the actual cause of extinctions on such a rapid scale. It is mainly due to the loss of entire habitats. The power creatures finding their homes desperately that are already destroyed beyond repair, making their survival almost impossible.
Undeniably, fragmentation of the natural habitats will always be counted as the sole cause of species extinction. To our dismay, there is no stopping to this phenomenon anytime soon but it is increasing at a massive rate. So, let’s pin point some of the main causes that are disrupting the nature’s ecosystem.
Over-harvesting
As already discussed above, man-made changes are negatively impacting our environment and over-harvesting is one of them. According to the experts, sustained over-harvesting is one of the greatest threats to the biodiversity of our planet. It can destruct a resource completely, causing not only population level extinction but even extinction of the entire species.
A fine example of overharvesting is the ocean overfishing. It is the term used for the process of catching fish from sea at alarming rates as a result of which fish stock in sea may seize to exist. We all know that oceans make up about 70% of the earth, so having a healthy marine life in the oceans is essential for our ecosystem to run effectively. It is highly important to sustain life elsewhere on earth, but the process of overharvesting is almost killing us.
Pollution
We can never forget the factor of pollution when talking about animal extinction. It is a slow but an extremely dangerous killer of our natural environment. Every day we see littered landscapes, intoxicated soils and waterways with hazardous chemical spills, all these things are killing nature.
The exposure to such deadly components in the air and environment in the surroundings is causing animals to die. Not only animals but air pollution is one of the biggest reason of chronic respiratory disease, lung cancer and other diseases found these days in humans. It is that some animal species have also become unsafe to eat because they consume toxic waste with whatever they feed on.
The cars we drive and the factories we run are constantly releasing toxic chemicals into the air. It is one of the main causes of acid rain that is impacts the green pastures around us, by almost killing plant life. Though farmers use pesticides to keep insects and bugs off their farms but it has to be kept in mind that they are yet another source of getting the environment polluted and poisoned.
Habitat Fragmentation
We always try to keep our comfort as our top priority but have we ever thought that the road we take every day to reach to our destination may be constructed after getting a natural habitat fragmented. This road may take us to the places we need to go, but remember it is the same road that we have chosen which leads to the destruction of the planetary ecosystem.
The reason that habitat fragmentation is strongly discouraged by expert scientists is because this process results in the creation isolated patches of landscape, which can have a negative impact on earth’s biodiversity.
Can we prevent animals from going extinct?
As we have seen in the video, it is very important for us to understand and spread the word among our social circles that ‘EXTINCTION CRISIS’ is real. From cutting down your consumption of meat to voluntarily making the local authorities aware of the situation and investing in clean energy, there are number of ways through which we can empower ourselves to help protect the poor creatures from facing extinction.
Conserving natural resources is another useful way to prevent extinction of various species. By conservation of natural resources, we mean recycling of the products which is highly important to protect and control the natural resources being harvested for their production.
In the same way using more digitizing documentation in order to reduce the number of trees cut down a year for the purpose of paper making. These are some of the most impactful ways of conserving natural resources. Together we can make this earth cleaner, greener and happier place to live!
