http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100928193452.htm
The article, “More Than One-Fifth of World's Plants Face Threat of Extinction, New Analysis Finds”, is written about a new study with threatening results for much of the plant population done by several organizations such as the Natural History Museum and Royal Botanic Gardens. This study is very crucial to the conservation of plants because 22% of plants on Earth are classified as threatened. The article confirms that humans are the reason for this large percentage of threatened plants since they have significantly reduced the habitats for many plants to live in by processes such as deforestation. The study also lists a breakdown of different threatened areas within the plant community such as the most threatened habitat is the tropical forests. Countries need to step in to make changes to help lower this very alarming level of threatened plants. The article mentions how these findings will be released to countries at the United Nations Biodiversity Summit. These nations should make harsh penalties and laws against people or manufacturers who deforest areas where any threatened species are located. Heavy fines should be involved so it can be put towards renewing the threatened plant population.
I thought the article was very interesting and informative since it was one of the largest studies on plants, and most studies about threatened species are on animals. It was also very alarming, and somewhat of a wake-up call to me because I never realized how many plants are threatened in our world. If we lose 1/5 of the plant population, life for animals will be increasingly harder and harder as those plants provide food, habitats, and resources for many animals. I liked this article a lot because from the title itself, it grabbed my attention since I never really realized what toll plants have taken as humans have taken away their habitats. I also thought the article was interesting because the article listed several findings from the article which I found very interesting such as gymnosperms are the most threatened plant group. I was surprised that man-induced habitat loss was the most threatening process because I had originally thought it was global warming that was the most threatening process. I also found it surprising that no other studies have found such an alarming fact about plants sooner than now. I am curious about how long it will take for these species to become extinct if we continue on this pathway, and how many more threatened species there will be in 100 years from now. I can only hope that plants will continue to flourish and grow, and as we make adjustments, the amount of threatened plants will significantly decrease.
Hyperlink doesn't work--SEe me to see how to correct.
ReplyDeleteWe talk about loss of biodiversity all year, this was a good overview.
I feel as though it does not seem that much is in effect to protect the plants. If biodiversity is very important and so heavily threatened, I think a faster, more effective approach should be taken immediately in contrast to the wait until the UN's meeting. I agree that the information given places the issue into prospective for me as well, as i generally do not look at plants as threatened or endangered. I know that I focus solely on endangered animals so much that i only think about the loss of big elements of the environment such as trees in the plants aspect. As you stated, the 1/5 ratio should be a signal to our population of the damage that we cause to our world. I feel like our society would be mesmerized by this information, but would it really sink into the majority? Probably not. I think we focus so much on getting by in our daily lives that we do not think to change our lifestyle to benefit plants, an element of our world that to our eye seems to be getting along just fine.
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