Environment Disadvantage -4wkj-ndi

Internal Links

Generic

The Gulf ecosystem is key – loss of Gulf biodiversity spills over to other ecosystems

Coastal Classroom No date (No date, “Biodiversity in the Gulf of Mexico,” The Coastal Classroom, http://sanibelseaschool.org/classroom/biodiversity-in-the-gulf-of-mexico, The Coastal Classroom is a collaborative effort between START (Solutions to Avoid Red Tide) and Sanibel Sea School to educate Lee County students about locally relevant coastal and marine issues. )Biodiversity refers to the number of different species in a given area. The Gulf of Mexico has a high level of biodiversity. Its warm waters and diverse habitats are home to thousands of marine species. In 2009, scientists listed 15,419 species living in the Gulf of Mexico. Biodiversity is often used as a measure of ecosystem health. The more species present in an ecosystem, the healthier it is. Biodiversity is typically higher in warm regions of the world. The organisms that call the Gulf of Mexico home range from microscopic to gigantic. Karenia brevis, the organism responsible for Florida Red Tide, is so small you need a microscope to see it. Karenia brevis, the organism responsible for Florida Red Tide. Whale sharks, on the other hand, roam the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico and can grow up to 40 feet long and weigh 80,000 lbs. The decaying leaves of mangrove trees supply energy to entire ecosystems. Mangroves are unique for their ability to withstand inundation (flooding) by salt water. The red mangroves pictured here exclude salt using filters at the base of their roots. Black and white mangroves excrete salt through special glands located on their leaves. Each unique organism plays an important role in its ecosystem. Mangroves, coastal trees that are adapted to life in saltwater, drop leaves into shallow bays and estuaries. The leaves provide food for decomposers – organisms that consume dead matter in a process called decay. This provides energy and forms the basis for an entire ecosystem. The decaying leaves of mangrove trees supply energy to entire ecosystems. Mangroves are unique for their ability to withstand inundation (flooding) by salt water. The red mangroves pictured here exclude salt using filters at the base of their roots. Black and white mangroves excrete salt through special glands located on their leaves. Bull sharks are an apex predator – meaning they are at the top of the food web. By consuming large quantities of fish, they regulate the population size of many smaller species. The bull shark is an apex predator. When green sea turtles graze on seagrasses, they promote new growth and prevent the seagrasses from developing diseases and parasites. When biodiversity is lost, ecosystems are thrown off balance and sometimes suffer serious consequences. When a coral reef is destroyed, all of the creatures that inhabit it are also harmed. When a species is eradicated, it is called extinction. Extinction often occurs due to loss of habitat. Extinction decreases biodiversity. When a species is in danger of extinction, it is called an endangered species. Threats to biodiversity include habitat loss, invasive species, and climate change. Invasive species are species that are introduced to an ecosystem in which they are not naturally found. They often take over the roles of naturally-occurring species and damage the balance of the ecosystem. The lionfish is an invasive species in the Gulf of Mexico. It is important to protect and preserve biodiversity for a number of reasons. Biodiversity provides the natural resources that we depend on for our daily lives – thanks to biodiversity we have a wide range of food, products, and medicines. The rich biodiversity in the Gulf of Mexico attracts many tourists to the area, which supports local economies. A loss of species can have cascading effects on the entire ecosystem, and these effects can even spill into other ecosystems.

Loss of Biodiversity bad, hurts future progress, collapses ecosystems

Chivian 11 (Dr. Eric S. Chivian is the founder and Director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment (CHGE) at Harvard Medical School,[1] where he is also an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry, “Species Extinction, Biodiversity Loss and Human Health”, September, 2011, http://www.ilo.org/oshenc/part-vii/environmental-health-hazards/item/505-species-extinction-biodiversity-loss-and-human-health)> BC

Human activity is causing the extinction of animal, plant and microbial species at rates that are a thousand times greater than those which would have occurred naturally (Wilson l992), approximating the largest extinctions in geological history. When homo sapiens evolved, some l00 thousand years ago, the number of species that existed was the largest ever to inhabit the Earth (Wilson l989). Current rates of species loss are reducing these levels to the lowest since the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, 65 million years ago, with estimates that one-fourth of all species will become extinct in the next 50 years (Ehrlich and Wilson l99l).

In addition to the ethical issues involved - that we have no right to kill off countless other organisms, many of which came into being tens of millions of years prior to our arrival - this behaviour is ultimately self-destructive, upsetting the delicate ecological balance on which all life depends, including our own, and destroying the biological diversity that makes soils fertile, creates the air we breathe and provides food and other life-sustaining natural products, most of which remain to be discovered.

The exponential growth in human population coupled with an even greater rise in the consumption of resources and in the production of wastes, are the main factors endangering the survival of other species. Global warming, acid rain, the depletion of stratospheric ozone and the discharge of toxic chemicals into the air, soil and fresh- and salt-water ecosystems - all these ultimately lead to a loss of biodiversity. But it is habitat destruction by human activities, particularly deforestation, that is the greatest destroyer. . Other models Countless other examples could be mentioned of unique plants, animals and micro-organisms holding the secrets of billions of evolutionary experiments that are increasingly threatened by human activity and in danger of being lost forever to medical science. Scientists have analysed the chemistry of less than 1% of known rainforest plants for biologically active substances (Gottlieb and Mors l980) - as well as a similar proportion of temperate plants (Schultes l992) and even smaller percentages of known animals, fungi and microbes. But there may be tens of millions of species as yet undiscovered in the forests, in soils, and in lakes and oceans. With the massive extinctions currently in progress, we may be destroying new cures for incurable cancers, for AIDS, for arteriosclerotic heart disease and for other illnesses that cause enormous human suffering.Disturbing Ecosystem Equilibria Finally, the loss of species and the destruction of habitats may upset delicate equilibria among ecosystems on which all life depends, including our own. Food supplies Food supplies, for one, may be seriously threatened. Deforestation, for example, can result in significantly reduced rainfall in adjacent agricultural areas and even in regions at some distance (Wilson l988; Shulka, Nobre and Sellers l990), compromising crop productivity. The loss of topsoil from erosion, another consequence of deforestation, can have an irreversible negative impact on crops in forested regions, particularly in areas of hilly terrain, such as in regions of Nepal, Madagascar and the Philippines.

Are these cross-species viral transmissions from primates to humans the result of human encroachment into degraded forest environments?If this is the case, we may be witnessing with AIDS the beginning of a series of viral epidemics originating from tropical rainforests where there may be thousands of viruses that could infect humans, some of which may be as lethal as AIDS (approaching l00%) but spread more easily, for instance by airborne droplets. These potential viral diseases could become the most serious public health consequence from environmental disruption of the rainforests. Other effectsBut it may be the disruption of other interrelationships among organisms, ecosystems and the global environment, about which almost nothing is known, that may prove the most catastrophic of all for human beings. What will happen to global climate and to the concentration of atmospheric gases, for example, when some critical threshold of deforestation has been reached? Forests play crucial roles in the maintenance of global precipitation patterns and in the stability of atmospheric gases. What will be the effects on marine life if increased ultraviolet radiation causes massive ocean phytoplankton kills, particularly in the rich seas beneath the Antarctic ozone “hole”? These organisms, which are at the base of the entire marine food chain and which produce a significant portion of the world’s oxygen and consume a significant portion of its carbon dioxide, are highly vulnerable to ultraviolet damage (Schneider l99l; Roberts l989; Bridigare l989). What will be the consequences for plant growth if acid rain and toxic chemicals poison soil fungi and bacteria essential for soil fertility? There has already been a 40-50% loss in species of fungi in Western Europe during the past 60 years, including many symbiotic mycorhizal fungi (Wilson l992), crucial to the absorption of nutrients by plants. No one understands what the effects of this loss will be. Scientists do not know the answers to these and other critically important questions. But there are worrisome biological signals which suggest that major damage to global ecosystems has already occurred. (Kurihara, Aoki and Tominaga l984; Davis and Hoel l990a, 1990b; Hoel l992) all suggest that environmental degradation may be starting to compromise not only the survival of frogs, marine mammals and other animal, plant and microbial species, but that of the human species as well. Summary Human activity is causing the extinction of animal, plant and microbial organisms at rates that may well eliminate one-fourth of all species on Earth within the next 50 years. There are incalculable human health consequences from this destruction: the loss of medical models to understand human physiology and disease

the loss of new medicines that may successfully treat incurable cancers, AIDS, arteriosclerosis and other diseases that cause great human suffering.

Reduction in biodiversity reduces quality of life

González 13 (Ivet Gonzalez, Inter Press Serivce News Agency, , “Cuba Wakes Up to Costs of Climate Change Effects”, June 17, 2013, http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/06/cuba-wakes-up-to-costs-of-climate-change-effects/)

“How much is a species worth? What is the price tag on the services provided by a river or a forest?” These are the questions biologist María Elena Perdomo is asking to encourage Cubans to take account of environmental costs, which may apparently be incorporated in the present economic reforms.¶ “Climate change effects reduce biodiversity, cause a decline in quality of life, change landscapes and have enormous social consequences. But what does all this mean in economic terms?” asks Perdomo, a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Studies and Services in Villa Clara, 268 kilometres from Havana.¶ In an interview with IPS, she said that this kind of analysis should be given more attention when decisions are being made about how to protect the environment, and when planning ecological projects, defining environmental education messages and programmes and planning construction or other works that could harm vulnerable areas.¶ “One way of determining the value of a service, resource or ecosystem is to consider the cost of replacing it if it were not available,” she said. “What losses are caused by a tropical cyclone or a prolonged drought? How much would it cost to take clean water to arable lands left without water sources?”¶ In Cuba, as in other Caribbean countries, the effects of global warming will have the greatest impact on coastal areas, although the whole island will be increasingly affected by extreme weather events, such as heat waves, prolonged periods of drought and heavy rains. Potable water and fertile land will be scarcer and biodiversity will be diminished. Some 80 coastal settlements are likely to be affected and 15 could disappear by 2050 if the Cuban government does not implement adaptation measures in response to the prediction that, by then, 2.32 percent of the national territory will be permanently under water, according to the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment. Because of this situation, conservation and remediation of natural areas that can contribute to mitigating temperature rise is another challenge for Cuba’s 11.2 million people and its economy, which is struggling to emerge from a severe crisis that has lasted over 20 years.¶ The strategic programme of economic and social reforms begun in 2008 by the government of President Raúl Castro includes addressing environmental problems. This year, that approach became more visible as using renewable sources of energy, which are much less polluting than fossil fuels, became a higher priority.¶ The authorities are directing investments so that by 2030 about 10 percent of the energy consumed in the country will come from wind, sun, water and other renewable sources, it was announced this month.¶ The ministry has also created an environmental research and management macro-project to consider climate change vulnerability and risk assessment in coastal zones from 2050 to 2100, which includes recommendations for adaptation measures.¶ “Often there is no reliable quantitative evaluation of natural resources,” said Perdomo. Other problems that have been identified, she added, are the lack of “financing for remediation, lack of decision-making power in local communities, and lack of financial support for environmental education.”¶ A study published in 2012 by the Revista Cubana de Geografía, an online geographical journal, estimated the total cost of restoring the vegetation along the banks of the river Guanabo, in the Cuban capital, at 825,500 dollars, according to figures from Unidad Silvícola, a state forestry unit in Havana.¶ To remedy damage to the vegetation of the Guanabo river basin caused by human activity, the research study found that forests, “cuabal” (dry-adapted thorny scrub growing on thin soil or bare rock) and mangroves would all have to be restored, to allow natural regeneration to occur.¶ Replanting efforts would take until 2022, says the study titled “Valoración económica de las afectaciones ambientales al recurso bosque en la franja hidrorreguladora de la corriente principal del río Guanabo, La Habana, Cuba” (Cost of environmental damage to forest resources in the hydro-regulating zones along the main course of the Guanabo river, Havana, Cuba).¶ This area has been subjected to indiscriminate exploitation for years, with the result that forests and thickets have been fragmented and destroyed, river channels eroded and bodies of water polluted with sediments, among other effects, the study says. If nothing is done, the costs of remediation will increase, the authors warn.¶ The National Statistics Office reported that Cuba spent 37 million dollars more on environmental protection in 2012 than in the previous year. However, expenditure on river basins of national interest fell by 81,000 dollars in the same period.¶ The report “Social Panorama of Latin America 2012″ by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) says that the environment was one of the most neglected areas in the region over the last two decades. On average, the region’s countries devoted 0.2 percent of public expenditure to environmental actions, sanitation, housing and drinking water during that period.¶ “Communities should be mitigating factors, not agents that accelerate climate change,” Sandra Ribalta, the coordinator of Ando Reforestando, a community reforestation and awareness-raising project in Havana, told IPS. “Our population sees climate change as something that will happen far in the future, or simply isn’t aware of it as a problem.”¶ Alba Camejo, an environmental communicator, told IPS that “things are being done, but information about them needs to be circulated more widely.”¶ That is why she started Árbol de Vida (Tree of Life), a way of spreading the word about environmental actions using a web site and a subscriber list of more than 10,000 email addresses.¶ Torrential rains from tropical storm Andrea buffeted the western province of Pinar del Río in the first few days of June, pouring down almost twice the province’s average rainfall for the month. Local authorities are now taking stock of the environmental damage and agricultural and housing losses left in its wake.¶ According to preliminary reports, the state Provincial Environmental Unit of Pinar del Río identified damage to the dunes of the Boca de Galafre beach. The local press was told that the downpours may also have caused deforestation in certain locations, among other destructive effects.

A Latin American role model is key to change environmental ideologies of other countries – Chile proves

Speiser 9 (July 29th, 2009, Robert M. Speiser “Chile fighting climate change — role model for the (developing) world”, http://blog.cleantechies.com/2009/07/29/chile-fighting-climate-change-role-model-for-the-developing-world/, Robert is an environmental and energy analyst currently working as an independent consultant on the carbon markets, environmental impact assessments, and on GHG quanitification issues in Santiago, Chile. He received his BA at UCLA.) The event brought together speakers from the Chilean private sector that gave concrete examples of their companies’ climate change and GHG management initiatives. First, it showed how Essbio, a water purification company, has been dealing with the ever-prescient and escalating challenges of decreasing water reserves due to climate change. Second, it illustrated the emissions and energy reductions Xstrata Copper, a mining company, has committed to and the steps it has taken to minimize the release of contaminants in its industrial processes. Third, it explained what Natura cosmetics has done since 2007 to become a “carbon neutral” business by calculating all GHG emissions in the company’s supply chain, transportation, and production of its various cosmetics products, and purchasing the equivalent amount of CO2 tonnage in carbon credits on the international carbon markets. One recent study from the University of Chile actually found that Chile’s national GHG footprint is projected to jump 4.2 times its current amount by 2030. This conclusion assumes the country continues on its current pace and manner of economic development, and with the increased reliance on new coal plants that are currently in different stages of construction. So, yes, not only are the effects of climate change real in Chile but so too is a growing movement and public consciousness to reduce people’s and companies’ carbon footprints. In addition to Essbio, Xstrata, and Natura, there are other enterprises in Chile making efforts to reduce GHG emissions in their industrial processes or take action in other local environmental issues. Yet, it is safe to say that such “climate change conscious” companies are still a small minority here in Chile. And, even though President Bachelet and the Minister of Energy are making genuine, good-faith efforts to bring the latest solar and geothermal energy technology to Chile such as with partnerships with California and the US Department of Energy, the situation of increasing national GHG emissions reveals a deeper complexity we all need to address: How can a middle-income economy, such as Chile, afford the latest in clean and renewable energy technology to reduce its climate change footprint, while at the same time, continuing to address more pressing needs of economic and social development? In other words, a country such as Chile still needs to put its food on the table by mining the copper, whether imported gas or a cheaper “clean” energy solution is currently available; and, if they are not available, a bunch of coal will certainly do.