Dot The Sky Poem

The growing disconnect between modern civilization and nature has reshaped our roles and responsibilities to the natural world. Our relationship with our planet continues to transform. In order to preserve the natural world we must recognize what role it plays in our existence and re-evaluate our ethics towards our ecosystems. Like all living things, we are engineered to survive, and if our environment is slowly becoming inhospitable, then our efforts to reverse our negative impact should be second nature. However, an extreme disconnect between humans and the natural world has resulted in widespread dissociation with factors such as global-warming, diminishing resources, and pollution. This dissociation with the state of our planet, in part, has to do with the fact that these issues do not feel immediately threatening to a large percentage of the population. Recent efforts, however; have begun a movement to reverse our negative impact and promote a more environmentally sustainable way of life. Now, more than ever, we must realize how are species has negatively impacted the natural world and begin to modify our way of life to preserve the environment, the life it supports, and its breadth of virtues.

In a world that we, as humans, have begun to destroy and shape for the worse, there is still so much that we are oblivious to. From the illegal endangered animal trade to harmful CO2 and methane, Racing Extinction has revealed to both myself and society the constantly ticking clock that is Earth.

In Mr. Holdeman’s biology 1 class we watched Discovery’s Racing Extinction. In the film a group of artists put together a “light show” on buildings displaying images of endangered creatures to show what we are doing to our world. Many creatures are being killed for our own selfishness and carelessness, these beautiful animals have living on this earth for longer and contribute greatly to the world around us. The film displays what is actually happening in the world around us and what we can do to help.

Did you know that there are 13 species of animals who we may have to say goodbye to in 2015, or an estimated 2.2 billion tons of waste is yearly dumped into oceans? There is no need to research the litany of environmental changes; news such as global warming, air pollution, or resource scarcity that choke environmental problems to appear daily on TV screens and in newspapers. Even with these particularly cautions, many of us are still facing environmental catastrophes with overly optimistic attitudes, ignoring how serious the matter is. This form of the unrealistic expectation is similar to the blind development in our technological society that engenders a series of environmental and economic problems. Paul Ehrlich, [1] a Stanford University

During SeaWorld commercials, orcas and sea lions playfully splash around in crystal blue waters. Likewise, zoos display animals in beautiful habitats, yet many of the animals’ natural habitats are depleting due to “acid rain, ozone depletion, global warming, the destruction of the world’s rain forests, and phytoplankton blooms and coral bleaching” (Bonner 81). These man-created global issues are forcing several animals to the brink of extinction. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature “18 percent of the world’s remaining mammals and 11 percent of the world’s remaining birds are threatened with

Through this lecture, I observed many things including the way we as humans have a need to rescue things and learn about the past. We as humans seem to instinctively want answers to things concerning the past of our world. The fact that we have trouble with things such as this is perplexing. A thing such as so simple as letting nature take course and letting animals die out is something we can’t do for some reason. Who would of thought that there were so many people out there that were so emotional when it came to protecting wild life and its current statues. For some reason humans crave to be a savior to this animal we won’t let die off. Perhaps we do this because in a sense we want to feel like we can make a large enough difference in our ecosystem we can leave our mark on this cruel world. It’s peculiar because you don’t see other animals helping each other so as that that certain species doesn’t go extinct. Just like in Ms.Cunningham lecture when she was talking about the “Extinct Diving Goose” and how it was a

The earth has been around for 4.6 billion years, and over this time 99.9% of all of the species that have existed on earth have gone extinct. (Barnosky, et al) Palaeontologists characterize mass extinctions as times in Earth’s history when the Earth loses more than three-quarters of its species in a geologically short period of time. This has occurred 5 times over the past 540 million years, and scientists are now suggesting it is happening a 6th time. We are in the midst of a sixth mass extinction that has the potential to wipe out many species of importance, and humans have a profound impact on it.

In the course of Earth’s history, there have been five major extinction events: the Ordovician-Silurian, Late Devonian, Permian-Triassic, Triassic-Jurassic, and Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction events. Now, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Kolbert, we are entering another one that is caused by a single species: ours. Human beings have decimated the rainforest, hunted animals like the great auk to extinction, pumped billions of tons of pollution into our atmosphere and oceans, and almost completely reassembled the biosphere. Even more frighteningly, these facts come from 2014, and in the four years since The Sixth Extinction’s initial release, we haven’t slowed down a bit. Kolbert closes her book with a call to action,

They are being pushed near to extinction because of the rainforest being cut down in copious amounts. This is forcing them to compete for space, food and mates.

Aldo Leopold articulates about an important statement regarding environmental conservation: “A little repentance just before a species goes over the brink (i.e. becomes extinct) is enough to make us virtuous. When the species is gone we have a good cry and repeat the performance” (Leopold, 194). In this statement, Leopold is referring to how we do not realize the importance of a particular species until it is extinct or on the brink of extinction, and the worst part is that we keep repeating this same mistake yet again.

There are many forces that can lead to extinction, not just the current phase of humans killing off the animals.

You awaken the last dying breaths of a sunset strewn across a bed of fallen twigs and leaves, no idea where you are or what you’re doing there. After a struggle, you lift your tired body up and brush the debris away, your clothes doing little keep the cold from crawling in. Even though the trees have been stripped of their leaves, now that the sun has left you and the clouds have rolled in you are lost in a world with no light. As you begin to walk in search of help gentle specks of white begin to drift to the ground around you. So quiet and calm, you wonder if they are falling stars from the night sky. No wind was present so the flakes, so innocent and pure, simply drifted straight down covering up the dead leaves noiselessly. No birds chirp

“A single species' disappearance can, in fact, make a huge difference on a global scale. Like pieces of yarn in a woven tapestry, the removal of one can start unraveling the whole system.”(Bove) Our ecosystem was to work together to function properly. “For example, declines in the populations of bees, butterflies, and other pollinators because of habitat destruction, pesticide use, and invasive species cost farmers millions of dollars each year in reduced crop yields.”(Suzuki)

Ever since the dawn of man, humans have interacted and interfered with nature. Becoming an apex predator means having to push others out of the spotlight; over thousands of years we participated in nature's little game, we learned, we adapted, we survived! Nonetheless, others have not been that lucky. Due to human's creative ability to adapt, humanoids have spread like a wildfire in a field of dry daisies burning any creature that dared to stand in the path. Humans have helped accelerate the new age of extinction for many animal species regardless of whether nature wanted them gone or not. The human race is still developing; so primitive, yet so astute. People continue on, not fully comprehending

Throughout the longevity of our Earth’s biota, there are recorded times in which the majority of the pre-living fauna and flora were seemingly decimated. According to our fossil record, these bouts of decimation have totaled to five individual instances throughout the existence of life on Earth. Many scientists agree in saying that, humans as species are the main cause for current sixth mass extinction. Some opponents to this theory claim that label of our worldwide ecological state as a ‘sixth mass extinction’, is just an “emotional charge that makes the problem seem cosmic and overwhelming” (Brand). This however is not a legitimate statement when taking into account the sheer magnitude of human involvement and activities that has added