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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 Extinction News
Mass Extinctions in the Cards Absent Urgent Action - Inter Press Service
 GreaterKashmir.com | Mass Extinctions in the Cards Absent Urgent Action Inter Press Service By Bo Normander and Supriya Kumar* WASHINGTON, May 23, 2012 (IPS) - This past Tuesday, May 22, marked World Biodiversity Day, but it came and went without too much public interest. The loss of biodiversity has not received the same amount of attention ... Rapid biodiversity loss continues in absence of political action and accurate ... Celebrating World Biodiversity Day Web of Marine Life Dissolving Under Human Onslaught |
Extinction looms for gibbons in Vietnam, scientists say - Phys.Org
Extinction looms for gibbons in Vietnam, scientists say Phys.Org The first comprehensive study of gibbons in Vietnam in over a decade has found that three of the six species (the cao vit and western black crested gibbons and the northern white-cheeked gibbon) are perilously close to extinction, and the remaining ... |
Genetic study sheds light on evolution and may help prevent extinction of the ... - Science Daily (press release)
Genetic study sheds light on evolution and may help prevent extinction of the ... Science Daily (press release) The Myanmar snub-nosed monkey, discovered by a team from Fauna & Flora International (FFI), Biodiversity and Nature Conservation Association (BANCA) and People Resources and Conservation Foundation (PRCF) in 2010, has been of particular interest, ... |
Acrobatic Primates Edge Closer to Extinction - LiveScience.com
Acrobatic Primates Edge Closer to Extinction LiveScience.com A group of acrobatic primates living, and swinging from tree branches, in Vietnam are not faring so well, with three of the six species inching closer to extinction, finds a new report, released today (May 21), on these primates called crested gibbons. |
Sneezing monkey, SpongeBob mushroom top new species list - Mother Nature Network
 Mother Nature Network | Sneezing monkey, SpongeBob mushroom top new species list Mother Nature Network Along with honoring the most recent finds in the animal kingdom, the list also highlights the shrinking biodiversity of the Earth due to human activity. By Wynne Parry, LiveScienceWed, May 23 2012 at 1:11 PM EST SNEEZY: A type of snub-nosed monkey, ... Sneezing monkey highlights new species |