Grade V – Subject: Biology. Biodiversity – also known as biological diversity – is the variety of life on Earth across all of the different levels of biological organization. On a smaller scale; biodiversity can be used to describe the variation in the genetic makeup of a species, and on a larger scale, it can be used to describe the variety of ecosystem types. This diversity is crucial to the survival of human civilization.
Overpopulation, overconsumption, overexploitation, deforestation, pollution. Around the World, about one million animal and plant species are now susceptible to extinction. Since 1970, humanity has snuffed out 60% of birds, marine organisms, reptiles, and mammals. Even our ability to fight every disease depends on biodiversity. The year 2020 – I know the irony. But here we are. As each domino of multifariousness gets destroyed, the knock-on effects on adjacent organisms intensify, weakening the survival for any species – including humans. To continue to exist; we need millions of pollinators, billions of soil creatures, and megatons of planktons.
COVID-19 – Six million confirmed cases and Three hundred eighty-three thousand deaths worldwide. How can something so perilous be invisible? By the same token, we insistently slaughtered their abode for all these years. In January 1996, Ebola, a deadly virus like Corona emerged from the forests of Africa where people had skinned and eaten Chimpanzees. We all know how invincible virus such as COVID-19 came into existence. People damage forests, kill its creatures, sell them to other people – shaking viruses loose from their natural hosts. When that happens, doubtlessly these micro-organisms need a new host to live on – and that’s humans.
Bottom line, humans are the insoluble dilemma for the Earth and its environment. But it is not feasible for us to vanish numinously. SARS, Ebola, Flu, COVID-19 – are just the initial outcomes of the enormous damage to the ecosystem. Experts throughout the world say, we fully expect more and more arrivals of pandemic influenza in the not too distant future. The majority of pathogens are still to be exposed. We are at the very tip of the iceberg.
Step I: Eat Sustainably –
Food production and what we choose to consume is a major driver of wildlife extinction. What millions of people are eating today is affecting massively on Greenhouse gas emission as well as resulting in over 60% of global biodiversity loss. Going vegan or at least vegetarian can lower every individual’s impact on the environment. Animal farming doesn’t only give rise to deforestation & degradation but also increases the pace of Global Warming.
Step II: Use Responsibly –
Every product we buy. I repeat, every single product has an environmental footprint and could end up in landfills. “Reduce. Reuse. Recycle”. We have heard, read, and watch everything about it too many times in our lives but how many among us live up to it? Reduce your daily food waste by cooking only what you’ll consume entirely and compost the leftover. Reuse that pickle jar as a candle holder or indoor plant. Recycle those empty cartridges of the printer – the possibilities to help conserve nature are endless.
Step III: Choose Wisely –
To begin from the ground, utilize your purchasing power by supporting eco-friendly products. Moreover, adopting a less-consumerist lifestyle can benefit the planet plus, your pocket.
Step IV: Move Shrewdly –
Any form of transportation that uses fossil fuels contributes to climate change. Almost Six million people fly somewhere every day around the world. Avoiding or flying less is obviously the most basic way of curbing one’s carbon influence. Moreover; consider taking public transport rather than a personal car/bike every so often.
Step V: Save up Determinedly –
Fresh bodies of water are terrifically essential to biodiversity. Cutting down the amount of water you utilize by having a 5-minute shower or simply turning off the tap whilst washing up the dishes, can help preserve vital wetlands. Furthermore, natural resources such as coal, oil, iron, petroleum, etc. are being overused in numerous industries, and as a consequence; they are waning from nature.
Step VI: Act Reversely –
The least humans can do is to step back and implement a shift in the basic way of thinking. Because our ‘methods of damage,’ or ways in which industrial development and human progression have ruined the environment, it only makes sense that the stoppage and reversal of such a process be sustained and multi-faceted as well. The first step begins with optimizing the current usage of technology. Present infrastructures and fuel technologies are making an already damaging system worse, by using the resources in the wrong way.
Step VII: Give Back Abidingly –
As cliché as it may sound, but planting trees is the simplest and most important step one can take to flourish biodiversity as many species of wildlife depend on trees for habitat.
Trees not only help in cleansing the air pollution but also benefit in million other ways, one of which is climate control.
3rd June 2020. Devastating news from Kerala came into limelight. Some localites fed a pineapple to a month-old pregnant elephant. They had put firecrackers in it. It exploded in her mouth and she lost the battle of life within a few days. On 4th June, political parties started blaming each other by shrugging off the reality of this tragedy. On the other hand, many brain-dead Internet users emerged to clarify – “No one killed the elephant intentionally. The trap of firecracker in fruit was for other animals (Boars) so that they would consume it and pass away before damaging the crop – and not for elephants”.
As if they expected the elephants to know that Pineapple was carrying ‘explosives’ and it was only for boars. Great job, Humans. For shamelessly and implicitly saying that it’s absolutely okay to kill Boars to grow food for the money. Why do we even have World Environment Day when we can’t even have basic value for the creatures who keep the same ecology alive? This was just one case. More such hundreds and thousands of cases must be taking place around the Globe, disappearing forever in the black hole of people’s hideous behavior.
Maybe this is what the Mayans predicted. The resulting transmission of disease from wildlife to humans is now a hidden cost of human economic development and to say nothing of, ‘greediness’. Shrinking natural habitats are reinforcing Novel diseases. Truth be told, if there is Zero Human interaction from this very moment; it would still take a minimum of 8 million years for Earth to convalesce till a certain point. We are currently in the midst of Earth’s sixth mass extinction. The destruction began with our deeds. It is only through the smallest of actions we can support the environment to construct itself all over again. Grade V – Subject: Biology. Humans learned it all in basic education. But forgot to implement it in the real world. As a matter of fact; the hardest part about watching the World fall apart is that we, as humans, are still being able to. We can’t predict when the next pandemic will come. The only certain thing is that the next one will certainly come. Stop killing the planet. Start taking steps in a virtuous way.
All lives don’t matter until and unless every living creature’s life on this planet begins to matter. The Universe is infinite. If this planet becomes uninhabitable once and for all, it will create gazillions of more planets for other lives to evolve and thrive. But borne in mind, you can survive only on Earth.
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