I don't think too many people understand the concept of biodiversity - let alone how important it is. It's simply an evolutionary requirement, or else life as we know it today would not exist on Earth. As an example from popular culture - take the World of Wars movie/classic. The only reason the aliens were stopped were due to microbes. Homogenous populations, in terms of an ecosystem, will always fail. This is why we have so many birds, insects... so many species. And most importantly:
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mirza @ Feb 17 2007, 07:54 AM) [snapback]392002[/snapback]</div> I think a lot (not nearly enough though) of people have an idea of why WE think biodiversity is important but they will downplay extinction by saying "things go extinct all the time" or "new species are always beig found". What they fail to acknowledge is the rates at which bioviversity is lost and how long it takes for speciation to occur. Then you have the completely ignorant which make up by far the largest portion of the population, who do no realize the importance of any species or their direct and indirect connection to our existance. This is what David Orr proposed in his essay, "What is education for?" Finally, I propose that you set a goal of ecological literacy for all of your students. No student should graduate from this or any other educational institution without a basic comprehension of: the laws of thermodynamics the basic principles of ecology carrying capacity energetics least-cost, end-use analysis how to live well in a place limits of technology appropriate scale sustainable agriculture and forestry steady-state economics environmental ethics Do graduates of this college, in Aldo Leopold's words, know that "they are only cogs in an ecological mechanism such that, if they will work with that mechanism, their mental wealth and material wealth can expand indefinitely (and) if they refuse to work with it, it will ultimately grind them to dust." Leopold asked: "If education does not teach us these things, then what is education for?"
Mirza, you are a perfect example of my belief that everyone can find a common ground with everyone else. I agree with you on this issue (Though I didn't always) We should make every effort to maintain species we can. I am against all this "anti-bacterial" everything for the same reason. We refuse to buy anti-bacterial soaps and hate all these anti-bacterial coated toys for kids.
Agreed. The AB stuff just seems to weaken immune systems. Some exposure is a good thing. People need to accept that they can't control (and shouldn't try) every aspect of their lives.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ Feb 20 2007, 12:51 PM) [snapback]393318[/snapback]</div> Yeah, isn't it better to build a germ library than to try to protect yourself from the inevitable all the while helping bacteria evolve into superbeings by using that crap? I almost want to contract West Nile now while I'm young and can hopefully defeat it than have to worry about contracting it when I'm older and may be less able to fight it off.
