Environmental Essay -- Biodiversity, Ecological Systems

Biodiversity is the makeup and interconnectedness of ecological systems. Biodiversity makes up all the diversity among living things within a specific system. This diversity of life is invaluable to human existence for countless reasons; it is a primary source for environmental resources that shape the economics of a region, it provides the scientific community with what seems to be an ever-growing source of data that can be used for things like medicine, and provides food and aesthetic value to human life. Ontario is a privileged province of Canada as it contains over 25,00 different species of plants and animals. (†¨Lemieux, Scott. 2011) With such a vast collection of biodiversity Ontario has the obligation to ensure its protection and growth of the thousands of years of evolution that lead to the complex array of life it now contains. With the growth of the human population biodiversity is shrinking, as the globe becomes one species orientated the externalities of human exist ence threaten biodiversity. One example of these externalities are the impacts anthropogenic climate change, the changing climate due to human activities threatens wildlife as it changes their habitats at rates that most wildlife cannot adopt and evolve to live in. (Lemieux, Scott 2011). Considering the excess of 25,000 different species in Ontario, the province has a large obligation to protect and maintain this biodiversity from the dangers that human existence pose to it. The federal and provincial governments have created many laws and regulations that relate to the protection and management of the environment and biodiversity. More specifically the provincial government of Ontario has the Endangered species act, which will be the focal point of analys... ...he environment and biodiversity by protecting species at risk of extinction and their habitats. After analysis and discussion it is clearly evident that the statue was a positive movement towards a better-managed environment but has many areas of concern. The act deals with problems in a reactive nature when it should be a proactive one in maintaining biodiversity. Secondly it comes into conflict when the species concerned overlaps with private property and unjustly puts the social cost of helping the species to the hands of the private landowners, better management between landowner and government polices should be made to fix the conflicts which arise from this. Finally the act needs to deal with the scope of biodiversity being centered around a one species orientated nature, and by this should focus a better management of human interaction with the environment.