How can we protect biodiversity and stop the sixth mass extinction?

Biodiversity is the variety of the life on our planet, in all its innumerable forms. There are millions of species, billions of individuals, and trillions of different characteristics. It provides us with everything for free including food we eat, water we drink and medicine we rely on. Nonetheless, due to people’s activity, our planet is experiencing a biodiversity crisis which is resulting in the loss of species population. Life has existed for over three and half billion years. Over that time, our planet has faced five major extinction events. The causes of each extinction were generally apocalyptic single events. Now we are in the planet’s sixth mass extinction known as “Holocene extinction”. There are different factors which have enormous impact on the diversity of life like climate change, overharvesting and depletion of natural resources and different kinds of pollution. We need to understand the significance of all species to our biosphere. All elements of any ecosystem are closely interconnected, thus dying out of any of them could disrupt the foundation of the whole ecosystem. Even slight changes can entail rather grave consequences. For this reason it is high importance to conserve our environment in all its diversity. First of all, it is necessary to tackle major issue of the climate change. As we know, it may result in most serious consequences for all life-forms on our planet. Using alternative energy sources is the best way to reduce emission of greenhouse gases and various pollutants which have a significant influence on the natural habitats. Due to ultra-violet radiation and the ozone layer depletion, it is quite difficult for inhabitants to adapt to new conditions. So, reducing the effects of climate change requires a worldwide effort. Secondly, preserving our rich natural diversity is essential to humanity’s quality of life on our planet. The idea of protecting certain lands and ecosystems or their unique features is a main reason of creating National Parks. However, we need to protect not only environment’s beauty and its breathtaking views, but also all the inhabitants which live there. Apart from that, one more effective way to save biodiversity is habitat restoration when we return damaged by human activity area to its natural state. It means bringing back the plants and animals that are naturally found there. One of the most impressive example is reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park. Also, there were reforestation works after a big forest fire in Australia where almost 65 thousand trees was planted. Thirdly, governments in developed countries which generally contribute to emissions have the power to control environmental situation within their authorities. Legislation that protects natural habitats by banning overusing of natural resources plays important role in conserving biodiversity. Protecting the habitat before they have been changed can be realized by government’s regulation. For instance, the Nature Conservancy‘s Plant a Billion trees campaign which is widespread across the globe may help to slow climate change Additionally, our consumption of natural resources is one of the main reasons of biodiversity loss. So, we have to bear responsibility for consuming products that are produced in the most sustainable way. Purchasing environmentally friendly product, we not only reduce amount of waste and carbon emission, but also increase the demand for this product. Last, but not least, we have to give a special attention to the matter of education and research. Educating people, especially children which will have to face this environmental challenges in the future can potentially help to form their behavior toward the nature. Environmental education of future generations at home or reinforced at school would create a close relationship with the environment. Even curriculum regular including excurses and trips could strengthen this bond. In this way they would be prepared for the bigger environmental issues. Furthermore, understanding how species interact within their environment is important in conserving biodiversity. As we know more about it, we will be able to find new more direct ways to save them. For instance, researchers found out that using wildlife corridors in urban areas have a positive on their population. To sum up, it is crucial to create healthy and diverse ecosystems that can withstand and recover from any disasters where each element supports the others. It is our duty to return the life when it was the most varied, vigorous and bio diverse.