![Darwin - The Voyage That Shook the World - BluRay [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51sx5aPkzoL._SL160_SS160_.jpg)
Welcome to Biodiversity Guide
Biodiversity Affected By Natural Article
. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for further reading, click here.
Is Conservation Of Biodiversity The 800-Pound Elephant In Our Living Room?
from:While biodiversity is a hot topic, conservation of biodiversity might easily be considered the 800 pound elephant in the room.
Defining biodiversity is complicated enough: is it just the animal and plant life of a region, or the actual planet supporting them? Does it include or exclude human beings? Can biodiversity and development coexist?
North America is one of the most biologically diverse regions of the world, with ecospheres that vary from deserts to seashores and everything in between. However, North American biological diversity is in great danger. While most of the threats are relegated to one country or another, several of them affect two of the three countries, and their effects and their consequences will potentially affect the entire continent.
The real problem we face, however, is the conservation of biodiversity. While everyone agrees that conserving natural resources is a good idea, there is no consensus on how to go about it. Every group, from governmental agencies to agribusinesses to concerned individuals has their own idea of what conservation of biodiversity means, and what measures should be taken to achieve it. Further, each group has its own agenda to pursue, and may regard some factors of conservation of biodiversity as threats to those agendas.
Part of the problem is that conservation of biodiversity is quite costly. We are just beginning to develop the technologies necessary to preserve biodiversity hotspots, but trying to restore an area to its original state is not only costly, it is often impossible. Further, no one solution fits all hotspots. What is needed in, for example, the Aral Sea region is not necessarily what will work in the Everglades. In the first area, what is needed is reworking the irrigation systems to restore proper salinity of the remaining water, and prevent further seepage due to the composition of the irrigation channels. In the second area, the restoration of the Everglades would require, among other things, reclamation and reflooding of land currently owned privately or by agribusinesses requiring costly and time-consuming negotiations with each of the landowners in question, and, in the case of the agribusinesses, other areas would have to be found to grow their products, lest food shortages arise as a result of the land reclamation.
In other cases, reclamation of the land might include destroying current housing developments or factories, with the collateral losses of jobs in an what might be an economically depressed area.
With so many groups and interests, and the high costs, it is clear that the conservation of biodiversity is a complicated matter. Yet, if it is not resolved during our lifetimes, the problems we leave our descendants will be even more complicated and harder to resolve.
Biodiversity Affected By Natural Specific links
Biodiversity Affected By Natural News
New photography exhibition explores "life, its transience, its fragility, and its persistence"
Cobra.I/II/III (triptych) Carbon pigment print. Each size: 20 x 20 in. Each image on 30 x 36 paper. © 2011 Deborah Samuel. TORONTO.-
Read more...Warming affects ecosystems not just biodiversity
The four-degree rise in temperature predicted by the end of this century could change the way ecosystems work even if it doesn't affect biodiversity.
Read more...Should We Turn Off the Lights?
Street lighting is changing bug communities and that means trouble for humans.
Read more...No To Subic Coal
Privilege speech delivered on May 21, 2012, Monday. Drafting of speech was a collective effort. Special thanks to Rubelh. I rise to give voice to the clamor of the people of Zambales against the proposed 600-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Sitio Naglatore, Barangay Cawag in Subic, Zambales. The project started out with a Memorandum of [...]
Read more...York researchers evaluate impact of climate change on biodiversity and habitats in East Africa
( University of York ) University of York researchers will play a key role in a new project studying the impact of climate change in Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia.
Read more...