Human activities that are indirectly impacting biodiversity

In the past couple of posts, I have discussed how humans have directly affected biodiversity of living organisms in negative ways.  There are,unfortunately, other activities humans perform on earth that can also indirectly affect organisms negatively.  Some of these indirect actions can lead certain species of organisms to become threatened and even endangered.  Once an organism is on the endangered list, they may even become extinct.  Specifically, if an organism has completely vanished from one region, they have become extirpated. This means that they no longer exist in that region but may exist in another region of the world.  One example is the  Elk  (Cervus elaphus) ; it is no longer present in North America but is still found in the northern territories of Canada.

Species like the Elk have become extirpated from North America is because of human activities.  This activity is the removal of forests or deforestation from certain lands to create residential and/or business communities.  Humans have tried to preserve certain areas to native organisms but very little is protected.  These small spaces are not enough for natural organisms to live at.  One example is Central Park in NYC.  This wildlife park is completely surrounded by city.  Before humans came to the island to build massive skyscrapers for business purposes, the whole island of Manhattan was pretty much a forest.  Since that time, the majority of wild forests that were naturally there are now gone.  Even though Central Park seems like a large park, it has lead to a process called habitat fragmentation.    As the definition implies, the habitat that use to exist in Manhattan has now been fragmented into various little natural reserves of parks.  Land species have no way of traveling from one park to another, which means they are very limited on resources.  Even though the Elk is extirpated from North America, it can make a comeback to the region. 

Another major problem is overpopulation of humans.  Since the 19th century, human population  has exponentially increased.  At the Science Council I attended last week in Manhattan, NY, we were informed that we would need approximately six earths right now to accommodate the population we currently hold right now on planet Earth.  So, not only are we abusing the amount of resources on our planet and thus hurting the planet's sustainability, we are also responsible for the high levels of greenhouse gases on the atmosphere.  One, for example, is carbon dioxide.  Too much of this gas has accumulated over the years due to humans releasing it.  Even car, factory and machine emissions have a huge impact on releasing carbon dioxide.  We are pretty much suffocating ourselves to the point with too much carbon dioxide and not enough oxygen in our atmosphere.  Yes, plants do take in the carbon dioxide that we release and convert it into oxygen, but it cannot keep up with the rate of human activities.  Plus, we are chopping down trees for more room to fit people on our overpopulated planet.  This means even less carbon dioxide is being filtered. 

We, as humans, can calculate how heavy of an affect we have had on our planet when it comes to sustainability.  In a class I took in 2011 at Queens College called Ecology 650.  Professor Chabora, who was my instructor for the class, made us calculate our "footprint" of what we have carved onto our planet.  If you are interested in taking this simple test, click on the following link: Calculate your Footprint.  You will be amazed what a major impact you can have on the environment by reducing simple things to facilitate in maintaining biodiversity on planet Earth.  Every little step helps to replenish our renewable resources and slow down the usage of our nonrenewable resources.