extracted from the Amazon is exported to be
The Loss of                                        made into furniture, paper, clothing, car
                                                   wax, hair dyes and many more. Many of
Biodiversity                                       these products can be made of other
                                                   sustainable materials however, companies
And Our Mistakes                                   are so blood hungry for the success and rise
                                                   in their businesses that they do not invest
                                                   their money on something which will
Written By Arpita Mandal
                                                   benefit our earth greatly.
Biological diversity, more commonly known
as biodiversity, is the variety of life forms in   Deforestation is one of the most prominent
an ecosystem. The life forms can be various        reasons for habitat loss in the Amazon and
plants, animals, bacteria etc. Biodiversity is     many other rainforests and forests
crucial for ecosystem productivity, stability      worldwide. Arboreal animals (animals
and sustainability which are essential for         which live in trees) are most affected in
human wellbeing. However, biodiversity has         these situations. Even within Australia,
been disrupted in numerous ways which has
                                                   southeastern areas of Queensland
led to drastic environmental changes. These
changes include; deforestation and habitat         experience immense deforestation which
loss, pollution, poaching and global               disrupt and kill many animals such as
warming. All these global topics contribute        koalas, phalangeriformes, various birds and
to the loss and continuation of loss of            more. This affects the biodiversity within
biodiversity which is done by humans.              these ecosystems as well as disturbing the
                                                   food chain.
DEFORESTATION AND
HABITAT LOSS                                       POLLUTION
A study published in 2015 stated that 15.6         Pollution can be found almost anywhere. It
billion trees are cut down every year. A large     is in the air as air pollution and in the
portion of this number comes from the              ground as groundwater pollution. It is most
Amazon rainforest which is known as “the           commonly found in bodies of water as water
lungs of our earth”. Research shows that           pollution. All these forms of contamination
200,000 acres of land in the Amazon is             are caused by humans in most cases. Lots of
cleared and burned every day, which also           the products we use in our everyday lives
means that 150 acres are lost every minute.        are harming the earth such as plastic bottles
Although 20 percent of the Amazon is               we drink out of and the cars and transport
already gone, why are people still carrying        we use to get around.
out these actions?
                                                    According to research from the Eco
There is a 34 million population within the        Coalition and EPA (Environmental
Amazon which rely on the resources of the          Protection Agency), waste products from
rainforest however majority of the timber          factories occupy 50 percent of air pollution.
 
Also from the EPA’s research it was found        Shark fin soup derived from Chinese cuisine
that 75 percent of carbon monoxide               is made from the fins of sharks. The rest of
pollution in the U.S is from the usage of        the shark was not used and therefore
motor vehicles. However, this is only            wasted. Fishermen would capture sharks of
statistics for air pollution. Referring to the   variety, slice off their fins and dump the
Plastic Pollution Organisation, 8 million        species back into the ocean to drown in
metric tons of plastic end up in our oceans      pain. This caught the attention of media for
every year.                                      how immoral the action was and thousands
                                                 of sharks had been killed as this soup was a
This alone is very harmful to us as humans       delicacy in Chinese culture.
as well as the millions of sea life species
which are dying from the pollution found in      Biodiversity in our ecosystems are dying
their ecosystems. This causes great              and there are many more reasons as to why
unbalance for the environments of not just       then there are stated in this article.
sea animals but also land animals which          However, it has to be taken into
now have to live with an unstable ecosystem      consideration that we are the ones to blame
thanks to our bad habits.                        for such losses as people prefer to improve
                                                 the quality of their lives rather than
                                                 improving the lives for others around
                                                 themselves, humans or not.
POACHING
Poaching is the killing of animals for their
unique features such as, skins, teeth and
bones, or even as a sport. Poaching is a great
debate which has been discussed for years
however hunters still take part in it.
Although many rules and regulations have
been made for this topic, it is still being
done. One of the reasons poaching is so
common is for the animals skin or body
parts to be made as displays. Though it is
known that this is very immoral and
unethical, it has been a fashion trend for
many years to wear expensive skins
extracted from tigers, lions, leopards and
many other animals. They could be made
from much more sustainable and ethical
materials and save crucial parts of our
wildlife.
One of the most famous stories portrayed in
the media was the Shark Fin Soup story.