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October 9, 2008

Are Humans An Endangered Species?

Are humans an endangered species?

My answer: Not yet.

But give us time. As the biodiversity of our planet suffers, we become more and more vulnerable, but the good news is: we have the ability to change our habits.

Most of the species that thrive on this planet do not do so in a vaccuum, but through cooperation, or at the very least, balance. Predators hunt prey, keeping their populations strong and healthy. It's a naturally self-regulating system.

On our planet, plant and animal species come and go. Every day, species go extinct and new ones spring up in their place. It's the nature of our world.

The tricky part comes when peoples' actions start influencing the rates at which these two things occur. Just like climate destabilization, you end up with biodiversity disruption. That's why we've starting hearing phrases like "mass extinction" and "species crash".

Now some might argue that when humans cause other species to go extinct, it's just like any other species pushing competing species out of the plant and animal kingdom. Perhaps that's true. Still, there's no question that humans have interfered in a large way with nature's regulation of our planet.

Really, whether you believe humans are a cut above the rest of the species kingdom or just another hairless ape and it's survival of the fittest, we still have the ability to change our behavior. We do it especially well when it serves our best interests-and make no mistake, biodiversity is important to our survival as a species.

First, We Eat

Food, drink, vitamins, nutrients. Most of this is organic matter. Alive.

We're at the top of the food chain, too, so that means that while we might not consume something directly, the trickle-down theory works here. We might not eat it, but somewhere down the food chain, something does.

Then, we sit back and let nature do its business-for us

Now, I'm not just talking about the horse pulling the cart.

In Leonardo DiCaprio's climate-change documentary The Eleventh Hour, science broadcaster David Suzuki estimates that it would cost us $35 trillion a year to do what nature is doing for us for free. That's more than half the world's annual gross domestic product (GDP), which stands at about $55 trillion, according to Wikipedia (they got their numbers from IMF, World Bank and the CIA World Factbook).

There are the helpers, like pollinators. We've heard about the disappearing honey bees, a major agricultural tool. And let's not forget all the microscopic dudes that help break down organic matter, that stuff we love in our compost piles that fertilizes our crops. The tiny critters that live in our intestines and help us break down what we eat and absorb the stuff our body needs.

Perhaps you could just argue that we don't need such wonderous variety. We rely on only a few types of plants to eat, for example. But by relying on just one species too heavily, like corn, for example, or honey bees, we leave ourselves exposed to a huge risk. If something goes wrong, if that species is chosen for extinction-whether purposefully by our human habits, or through natural selection, we're the ones left in a lurch.

Natural Remedies

According to Wikipedia, more than 40% of medicinal drugs used in the United States come from natural compounds and we've only just started to research the beneficial properties provided to us by nature.

Most of nature's miracles remain untapped by man.

Bio-Mimicry: Exploiting Nature's Brilliance For Our Own Benefit

One thing nature has shown is that it doesnt value excess, or wasted energy. The plant or animal species that doesn't live efficiently and effectively, using its resources prudently, generally doesnt live long.

So it makes sense with all the resource intensive stuff we do every day, we would be looking for solutions that use less energy. How do cactus live in arid, dry environments? How do frogs and lizards climb walls? How do boneless oysters make super-hard shells?

Nowadays, we're moving way beyond the chemistry and developing technologies based on the cool stuff animals and plants do naturally. One example of such research involves how the humpback whale regulates its heartbeat.

Humpback whales, for instance, pump six bathtubs of blood around their bodies and regulate the beats with electrical signals passing through thick non-conductive blubber shielding the heart from cold.

Based on research at the Whale Heart Satellite Tracking Program in Colombia, a cheap operation for humans that bridged damaged heart muscles by mimicking the tiny "wiring" could cut demand for battery-powered pacemakers in humans.

It can cost up to $50,000 per patient to fit a new pacemaker and the world market is projected at $3.7 billion by 2010.

More at: redOrbit: Animal Bio-Mimicry Inspires Tech Developments

We may have gotten the idea of flight from birds, but we're way past that now.

Posted by sorsha at October 9, 2008 4:39 PM