We Can Still Support Conservation
I’m sure that, given the events of the past few months in the U.S., environmental conservation, pollinators, pollution, and biodiversity are the last things on your mind. However, these issues are essential to maintaining a sustainable world and deserve our attention.
The Trump administration is eliminating positive initiatives which control climate change, reduce pollution, and preserve our natural resources by dismantling the organizations dedicated to these tasks.
Our wannabe dictator may be able to shut down government programs, but he cannot stop individuals from doing what they can to protect Mother Earth.
Think about how one small act can help. Then go for it!
Pollinators Are One of the Concerns
Long-term sustainability and food security depend on the health of pollinators. Society spends a lot of energy trying to preserve wild animals and their habitats but tends to ignore similar needs of pollinators.
According to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation: Pollinators are necessary for the reproduction of over 85% of the world’s flowering plants, including more than two-thirds of the world’s crop species. The economic value of native pollinators in the U.S. alone is estimated at $3 billion per year.
Beyond agriculture, pollinators are keystone species in most terrestrial ecosystems. Fruits and seeds derived from insect pollination are a major part of the diet of approximately 25% of all birds, as well as mammals ranging from red-backed voles to grizzly bears.
The estimated 16.5% of pollinators threatened with extinction is cause for alarm. Did you realize that native bumblebees in North America have declined by 97%? The decline in native pollinators has increased the need for farmers to rent or import bees.
Pollinators are essential to the security of our food system and the health of the planet. Long-term sustainability is a hot topic these days with the obvious consequences of our mismanagement becoming evident through climate change. However, climate change does not exist in a vacuum. Beyond the scientists, you and I must do our part, and helping pollinators is a good place to start. Plant some native flowers, trees, and shrubs and give pollinators a home where they can thrive.
Other Components
There are many components to the changes taking place on Mother Earth, however, and each must be addressed. There are many components to the changes taking place on our planet, however, and each must be addressed. Here are just a few.
CLIMATE CHANGE is the term we hear most often. The concern arises because it describes a change in the average conditions, such as temperature and rainfall, in regions over a long period of time, and the most critical changes have occurred in the last twenty years. However, increasing changes over the last 150 years globally are a concern for us all because these changes cause rising sea levels, shrinking mountain glaciers, and ice melting more quickly in Antarctica, the Arctic, and Greenland. Monitor your carbon footprint and do what you can to reduce it.
Converting a forest or stand of trees to non-forest use through clearing or clearcutting is called DEFORESTATION. Frightening statistics show that 31% of the Earth’s land masses are forests, and areas the size of Belgium are being deforested every year, or an average of 2400 trees per minute.
The lack of reforestation results in habitat damage, biodiversity loss, and aridity. It also contributes to global warming by reducing the intake of carbon by trees, which helps balance greenhouse gases and carbon emissions.
Trees are nature’s air conditioners and air purifiers. Support efforts that prevent the destruction of native forests, woodlands, prairies, and meadows.
POLLUTION is defined quite well by Britannica: “Pollution, also called environmental pollution, the addition of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or any form of energy (such as heat, sound, or radioactivity) to the environment at a rate faster than it can be dispersed, diluted, decomposed, recycled, or stored in some harmless form.”
Effects of pollution abound - air pollution, ocean pollution, plastic pollution, soil contamination, noise pollution, radioactive contamination, light pollution, thermal pollution, and littering. Pollution is due to excessiveness, irresponsibility, ignorance, and selfishness. That may sound harsh, but when humankind is more concerned about its comforts and convenience than about the state of the only planet we have, such words are anything but harsh. Please, don’t litter and pick up the garbage others leave behind.
LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY comes about through many of the other issues noted here. Humans are driving the causes of this loss. Biodiversity refers to the variety of life on Earth from the smallest level to the ecosystems themselves. All life relies on healthy ecosystems. It is like a web of life where one broken strand affects the web itself. Add a diverse selection of native flora in your yard to help rebuild ecosystems.
OVERPOPULATION is another concern because the needs of an increasing population contribute to the actions resulting in many of the issues ultimately causing climate change. More people equals more greenhouse gases. Many feel humans are using up natural resources at a rate that far exceeds the planet’s ability to keep up. The Center for Biological Diversity states that in the quest to survive climate change, “we not only need smaller footprints but fewer feet.”
If we wish to have a sustainable world, we must learn to live within our means. Do what you can to make our world a better place. We can make a difference despite Donald Trump and his minions.
Dear Reader,
I'd be ever so grateful if you would take a few minutes to recommend Let's Get Our Hands Dirty to your followers on Substack and other social media platforms.
Thank you!
Greta
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Greta
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