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Eva Hall
C. Douglas
English 112-47
6 April, 2017

The Three Voices of Biodiversity Loss

Biodiversity can be discussed from many different points of views. The human population is

constantly growing and how that affects our biodiversity can be answered by scientists who

study Biological and Physical Sciences, the Government and even Environmentalists. People

who are concerned about the future of our planet and serious minded about the conservation of

resources the earth offers would be interested in sharing how.

When predicting statistics on where the earth will be in the next decade or inventing a new

instrument or technological tool that will forecast threats on wildlife, the scientists are the

individuals that have most of that figured out or in the process of discovering the answers.

Physical Science involves the nonliving physical world, biology involves the study of the living

world. Combining the two subjects allows them to apply abstract formulas and theories to real

world situations to come up with concrete solutions (College Factual.) Scientists are about fact

gathering and what they can prove.

With a subject such as population growth, scientists cant just come out and say this is

where we will be in the year 2060 because of this. Scientists, however, can forecast. That being

said, scientists have done numerous studies and experiments to suggest that human population

growth is leading to the decline of biodiversity. For example, The Center for Conservation

Biology at Stanford University, developed a tool for analyzing anthropogenic threats to

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biodiversity based on geographic patterns in species distributions, species habitat use, forest loss,

and human demographic trends (Sisk, Thomas D). This tool proved that more species would be

lost in more populated areas.

Scientists have also studied the worlds 25 hotspots to prove if human population growth

effects biodiversity. Using a world map to show the distribution of humans, gathering

information, and boundary data, scientists can now calculate population density and growth rates

for each of the biodiversity hotspots. Nineteen hotspots are growing faster than the population

worldwide (Cincotta, Richard P).

Scientists do have differing opinions. While some scientists are aware that human population

growth could be causing biodiversity loss, other scientists believe genetically modified crops

have a negative impact on the natural biodiversity. The argument for transgenic crops is that

when trying to conserve biodiversity, these genetic crops can be grown in smaller areas of land

therefore reducing the growth of farm land but still harm biodiversity. Therefore, scientists can

agree that increased demands for goods and services to meet the needs of a growing population

will put more pressure on our biodiversity. Slowing population growth will ease off the pressure.

There are some that say because overpopulation could be a rising issue effecting biodiversity,

many companies and organizations believe that family planning and population control is going

to be required to fix what humans have caused. The one voice that trumps all others in this

country is the U.S. government. The government is calling all the shots and making all the

decisions for the country and our best interests. It is said that the U.S. government does not

support population control. The Department of State, Diplomacy in Action, States, The goal of

U.S. international population policy is to promote healthy and educated populations by

supporting reproductive health and rights, voluntary family planning, womens empowerment,
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development, and efforts to combat HIV/AIDS. The U.S. does not endorse population

"stabilization" or "control." The "ideal" family size should be determined by the desires of

couples, not governments (U.S. Department of State). The government takes this viewpoint

because they dont believe in making those decisions for others. The government believes in

providing the country with the support, resources and knowledge needed so women feel

empowered and people have the information to make good decisions.

The people who are concerned with the condition of the environment and protecting the

environment are environmentalists. The environmentalist believes that we consume too much

energy. Humans have taken advantage of the resources available. The energy usage is out of

control. By trying to create a modern civilization for humans to live in, humans are taking a

huge fraction of life's energy that is provided by the plants through photosynthesis. Humans have

eliminated the megafauna (Carl N. McDaniel). Therefore, specie loss is a direct result from

human activity (Carl N. McDaniel). The variety of species and different groups of wildlife is

very important to making the life cycle work. The less diverse an ecosystem is, the less

productivity and less stable it is. Therefore, it can be concluded that the environmentalists stance

on human population growth effecting biodiversity is not a positive one. They believe humans

are the main source with overconsumption of resources leading to deforestation, expanding in

land, to overconsumption of daily energy.

Given these different views on human population growth and how it effects biodiversity, it

can be concluded that consumption levels could be factoring into the loss of diversity.

Environmentalists believe humans consume too much energy and space. Scientists take the

position that we consume too many resources such as food, thus looking into transgenetic crops

as a solution. The government realizes overpopulation is a problem but instead of population

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control, they are educating the people and providing them with the resources like Planned

Parenthood. While all three voices have different views, they have all come to the same

conclusion; that human population is growing rapidly and could be effecting loss of biodiversity.

Works Cited
Biological & Physical Science." College Factual. Media Factual, n.d. Web.
Cincotta, Rich and P., Jennifer Wisnewski, and Robert Engelman. "Human Population in
the Biodiversity Hotspots." Nature, vol. 404, no. 6781, 2000, pp. 990-2 Research Library
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McDaniel, Carl N., and David N. Borton. "Increased Human Energy use Causes
Biological Diversity Loss and Undermines Prospects for Sustainability."
Bioscience, vol. 52, no. 10, 2002, pp. 929-936 ProQuestCentral,
Sisk, Thomas D., et al. "Identifying Extinction Threats." Bioscience, vol. 44, no. 9,
1994, pp. 592 ProQuest Central