Yesterday, Sunday the 22nd of May, marked this year's world biodiversity day. While the commemoration is not as popular as mother's day or any other secular days set aside for other commemorations, the world's biodiversity day is more important and of more influence on the existence of man.
Why did I say that biodiversity has more influence on the existence of man? Perhaps the statement is better understood by knowing exactly what biodiversity constitutes and the functions/services they perform.
What is biodiversity?
It is the word coined to denote all the species of living organisms in the world. When we talk about living organisms, we mean plants, animals, bacteria, fungi, protozoans, and every other kingdom of living organisms that are in existence. The biodiversity level of an ecosystem is measured using a host of variables such as species diversity (number of unique species per unit area), species evenness, and a host of other variables.
What makes biodiversity important to man?
Man cannot exist in isolation without the biodiversity of plants, animals, microbes, etc all around. The various foods that we eat come from biodiversity. Even the foods that are synthetic depend directly or indirectly on biodiversity. Both natural herbs and synthetic drugs that we take to fight all forms of illnesses have their roots directly or indirectly in biodiversity. Moving away from food, many raw materials that are used to manufacture different products which serve important functions to man are gotten directly or indirectly from biodiversity.
The above are just some of the services that biodiversity offers man. As if those are not enough, there exist many processes that may have nothing to do with drugs, foods, or raw materials but are important that the environment of man is habitable. These are referred to as the ecosystem functions that biodiversity performs. These include the protection of watersheds, maintenance of important nutrient cycles, regulation of climate, purification of air, etc. the list can go on and on.
Now imagine that all these functions and services are interrupted or halted completely. The implication is that man may cease to exist totally. For example, we can hardly survive without oxygen for more than 2 to 3 minutes. In actual fact, the human brain gets damaged irreversibly if it is starved of oxygen for more than 4 minutes. Guess where the oxygen we breathe comes from? yea, you guessed right - from plants. The forests are not called the lungs of the earth just for jokes.
The tiniest of living organisms have their own functions they perform which in the overall functioning of the ecosystem, can be very important. You as a human might suffer from malnutrition if some special bacteria group refuses to fix atmospheric nitrogen into the soil. Mosquitoes can be tinily annoying but the population of birds, fishes, and bats may suffer without their existence. Microbes can sometimes be dangerous and sterile environments may be appealing, however, some of our foods are not digestible without them. The bottom line is just that, every living creature has its functions that may never be replaced if they are removed from the surface of the earth.
The current problem
Something sinister is going on with our biodiversity, which if utmost care is not taken, might lead the world and the human population it contains to its doom. Apart from some scientists and a few laymen that are conscious and know the importance of biodiversity to mankind, many are just going about their day without any regard for biodiversity.
Man has moved beyond seeking sustenance to desiring luxurious lifestyles and it does not matter if the latter comes at the expense of destruction to the world's biodiversity. Overexploitation, outright disregard for the environment, and ignorance all team up to wage a war against the world's biodiversity. The result is that many important species of living organisms have either gone or are on their way to going extinct. Of course, we are already suffering some of the consequences but the worst of them is probably yet to come.
Perhaps not in our generation or even the generation that will be after us. But a time will come when even the simplest of diseases will be killing humans and no drug would be able to solve the situation because the biodiversity that could be the potential drugs has gone extinct due to the greed and recklessness of the past generations. A time might come when this planet will become inhabitable because the biodiversity that regulates climate has been significantly altered. How about food and water crises? I can go on and on!
What we can do differently
As laymen, we can just sit down, fold our arms, do nothing, and let the status quo remain or even get worse because the government is supposed to be the one to formulate laws to protect biodiversity. We will not just be an accomplice to the destruction of the planet, but the major culprit. Below are just a few changes in lifestyle that we can observe just to contribute our own quota towards conserving the world's biodiversity:
- Avoid wastage of resources - be it renewable or nonrenewable. Resources include foods, water, materials - just name it.
- Do not kill any living organisms or destroy plants/trees for pleasure. Only do so if your SURVIVAL is hinged on killing or destroying them.
- Genuine efforts should be made to live a lifestyle that will ensure minimal emission.
- Use more of biodegradable products.
- Plant trees.
- participate in or donate towards efforts geared at conserving biodiversity/environment.
- Use minimal electricity. Turn off your bulbs, and gadgets when they are not in use.
- Raise awareness whenever the opportunity comes up.
By doing all these and more, we would have done our own part in ensuring that we live in a better world and future generations will not need to raise curses on us when their time comes to inhabit this world.
What do you think?