Llana Irish T.
Maisa BDSC-2A
Science, Technology, and Society
Reflection 4: Biodiversity and the Healthy Society.
To be honest, I didn’t think much about biodiversity before. I just think it is something that
sounded scientific and all about biological creations. But the more I learned about it since I stepped in
college, the more I started to realize how close it actually is to everything we do. It’s in the food we eat,
the air we breathe, the water we drink. It’s in the birds we hear in the morning and the trees that give us
shade on a hot day. Every living thing, no matter how small or unnoticed, is something that keeps the
world alive and us people too.
In class, when we talked about how science and technology have changed the world, it really
made me think. Of course, we’ve come a long way and there are changes that gave benefit for us to live.
We have medicine, transportation, communication, and so many things that make life easier. But at what
cost? We’ve also cut down forests, polluted oceans, and pushed so many animals to the edge of
extinction. Sometimes, I think we forget that nature isn’t just a backdrop for us to live because it is life
itself. This is sometimes unnoticed but when we hurt the environment, we end up hurting ourselves. That
realization hit me differently. It made me feel both guilty and motivated to do better. Also, from the
module, one concept that really got me thinking was how science and technology have seriously harmed
our ecosystem even as they bring development. Rapid land development, pollution, and industrialization
have been upsetting ecosystems and driving many species toward extinction. Though they seem to be
unrelated to our daily existence, these issues are not.
The text also underlined how a really healthy civilization sees nature as a collaborator rather than
only a resource. Food generation depends on biodiversity; clean water also depends on it; even illness
prevention depends on it. Some of the most life-saving medications we have come from natural sources—
something I never really gave any thought before. Though we take it for granted, the surroundings help us
in many invisible ways. That truly made me consider: when we are killing the basic mechanisms that
enable life, how can we claim to be enhancing our society? Long term changes cannot be healthy if its
surroundings are suffering.
If you ask me, the way we handle the surroundings now will determine the course of society.
Rather than destroy biodiversity, science and technology should enable our protection of it. A very
advanced society grows with nature rather than against it. Starting with awareness, responsibility, and
respect for the life all around us, that is the kind of future I hope we can create.
