What about Alarming Animal Reduction

Scientists recently announced that there has been a 73 percent reduction in wildlife in the past 50 years. What does this mean for us?

Wildlife reduction hurts everybody. It’s not important only for animal lovers, scientists, and red-meat eaters.

It hurts us all.

How?

A reduction in wildlife can hurt humans by impacting food security, disrupting ecosystem services like pollination and water purification, increasing the risk of zoonotic diseases, affecting livelihoods dependent on wildlife, and contributing to climate instabilit; ultimately leading to poorer quality of life and potential health risks for all.

Without nature, we are nothing. Yet humans are destroying the environment and the living creatures that call our planet home at unprecedented rates — at our own peril. From increasing the threat of disease to disrupting our global food chain, biodiversity loss across the globe is threatening the very foundation of our future and the well-being of everyone, everywhere.

Each time a species goes extinct, the world unravels a bit. The consequences are profound, not just in those places and for those species but for all of us. These are tangible consequential losses, such as crop pollination and water purification, but also spiritual and cultural ones.

Thriving wildlife populations generate revenue through tourism, local jobs and fostering economic growth. Moreover, maintaining healthy ecosystems enables sustainable harvesting of resources such as fish, timber and non-timber forest products.

Once we realize that the real damage is global, international, national, local and personal, we ask what can I as an individual do about such a large problem?

What can I do to help?

Learn about wildlife preservation in your area.

Teach others

Watch wildlife responsibly.

Report animals in distress to authorities.

Plant native species

Make your yard a wildlife haven

Avoid harmful chemicals

Don’t litter and pickup trash

Become a citizen scientist

Learn about endangered species

Adopt an animal

Summary

The network of life is intricately interwoven and bound together as one amazing tapestry for the benefit of all of its individual parts. As one part suffers, so does the other;  as one part thrives, so does the other; and thus the whole rises and falls based on this benevolent inner-connectivity of synergy.

How could we avoid the obvious conclusion: we all need one another. Mutualism or symbiotic relationships thrive. Independence, obvious to other living things, leads to ruin. We live or perish according to how we recognize the whole creation and work in harmony with it.