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Biodiversity and Livelihood- Impacts of Climate Change

Biodiversity- Our Greatest Treasure

Every day we come across report of a new species going extinct in India. The pink-headed duck, the Sunderbans rhinoceros or the Asiatic cheetah, we have lost so many beautiful species due to the severe impact on our biodiversity. This word ‘Biodiversity’ what does it exactly mean? Many of you must remember learning a little bit about it in school and thinking why do we have to study such a boring subject! But the truth is, this ignorance of the human species has what led to the damaging of our biodiversity. Healthy ecosystems require a vast assortment of plant and animal life, from soil microbes to top-level predators like bears and wolves. If one or more species is removed from this environment, no longer serving its niche, it can harm the ecosystem. Similarly, if an external or foreign species is introduced into this system, it can devour the available food and land which will again affect the original system severely.

The Link between Biodiversity and Climate Change

The changes in biodiversity affect our daily food sources, medicine and environmental well-being as it disrupts the ecosystem which consists of the daily workings of plants and animals. Think of it as a production chain. Honeybees, beetles and other organisms pollinate the seeds from various crops which provide food for human beings. Each organism has its own responsibility since one single insect cannot do the work of the entire ecosystem. If one of these tiny workers disappears, we will end up losing one-third of our crop production. Without countless unique ecosystems and their respective diverse plant and animal life, our quality of life may become threatened.

Climate change nowadays has become a topic which is most likely to be debated on, talked about, or reported on the news rather than understanding the actual gravity of the situation.

When the average weather conditions change from what was deemed to be ‘normal’ and starts affecting the environment and our day to day lives, we coin it as a change in the climate. As humankind evolved, we began to use the available resources for greed rather than just for our needs. The greatest inventions in technology began to affect the ozone layers of the earth which protect us from the harmful rays of the sun, thus increasing the core temperatures of the earth. As the planet warms quickly, mostly due to human activity, climate patterns in regions around the world will fluctuate. Ecosystems and biodiversity will be forced to fluctuate along with the regional climate, and that could harm many species.

The impact on biodiversity and climate change is partly due to how we make use of the available land. With the growing population across the world, we have chopped down thousands of trees and converted rich, cultivable lands into modern cities and concrete jungles. Changes in climate can also intensify droughts, decrease water supply, threaten food security, erode and inundate coastlines, and weaken natural resilience infrastructure that humans depend on.

So what can we do as dwellers of this beautiful earth to save her and protect our ecosystem? The first step would begin from planting trees and reducing our carbon footprint as much as we can.

If every person on his earth plants one tree every week, we would overcome climate change in a very short time. Reducing the use of technology will reduce carbon footprints which is severely affecting the earth’s ozone layer. These small steps can go a long way in making a difference and saving our ecosystem. Share your wonderful stories with us and help us spread awareness regarding the impact of climate change on biodiversity.