Extinction of Species
· Every 20 minutes, the world adds another 3,500 human lives but loses one or more entire species of animal or plant life - at
least 27,000 species per year. (Source: PBS)
· At the present rates of extinction, as many as 20% of the world's 7-15 million species could be gone in the next 30 years.
This rate of extinction has been unprecedented since the disappearance of dinosaurs 65 million years ago (Source: WWF).
The Iraq War, bird flu, US economy crisis, conflict in Tibet, rise in food prices, the escape of Mas Selamat… These are just some of the many events that are currently happening somewhere in this world. People sacrifice their utmost concern and attention while countries spend large amount of money as well as deploying thousands of pairs of hands and legs just for these events. Though these events are worth one’s time and effort, many often overlook the most fundamental and critical problem that is currently going on. This problem concerns all parts of the world and nations, regardless of the level of development. Yes, the topic I am talking about here is Environmental Destruction.
Being stewards of the Earth, our main responsibility is to look after it, make sure that it is ‘fine and healthy’ and to ensure that it is able to sustain the lives of our future generations. However the fact that the Earth is currently in bad shape shows that we are not doing our job, at least not good enough.
One very good evidence to show the extent and severity of environmental destruction, implicated on our Mother Earth, is the extinction of species. From the information above, the writings claimed that ‘we are losing at least 27,000 species per year, which also means that ‘as many as 20% of the world’s 7 to 15 million species could become extinct in the next 30 years. In addition, it even mentioned that this rate of extinction is unprecedented or in other words, such a phenomenon has never happened before! These figures are alarming and worrying. Furthermore, the graph above also shows a steep increase in the number of extinct animals from 1 in 1900 to about 600 in 2000.
One of the main causes of this is deforestation. Deforestation has affected the rainforest of many countries around the globe, especially tropical rainforests in Southeast Asia. With the clearing of these densely populated forests to meet the increasing demand for timber and paper, the habitat of hundreds and thousands of animals are sacrificed. As these animals fail to adapt to these changes, they give in to the elements of nature and die.
Deforestation is also related to air pollution. As technology and economy improve, the increasing number of cars on the road and its usage result in large quantities of pollutive gases released into the atmosphere. As some of these gases, such as sulphur dioxide, dissolves in the rainwater, acid rain is created. Acid rain is a well known solvent for the killing of plants, thus contributes to deforestation. Besides this, air pollution also results in global warming and the greenhouse effect, which causes ice-caps to melt and sea levels to rise as well as many other destructive consequences.
Water pollution is also another example of environmental suffering. Common examples are oil spills and littering. These not only destroy the beauty of the coasts lining these water bodies, but also kill marine plants and animals, thus contributing to their extinction.
Back on land, natural resources are fast depleting as their demand increases, which is in turn caused by technological improvements. Such resources include crude oil, barren land, metal ores, timber, etc/
Thus with all these harmful impact, I can confidently say that the environment is suffering. Therefore we need to do something and we need to do it fast. In fact, we are already experiencing some of the effects such as more frequent and devastating weather conditions worldwide, spreading of deserts and the rise in global temperatures. There is no time to waste. We need to save MOTHER EARTH!!
Justin
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