January 21, 2025

Introduction
The biodiversity of today is the result of more than 4 billion years of evolution, with human influence contributing significantly. As humans, we rely heavily on biodiversity in a variety of areas: food, water, stable climate, economic growth, etc. Regarding our global climate, many types of species help us battle the modern world’s increasing carbon emissions, with specific examples lying in salt marshes and mangrove swamps, both of which absorb large amounts of carbon. However, human activity has led to some or total disappearance of these types of species. This causes a great deal of concern due to the fact that these species contribute immensely to a natural means of combating climate change as well as the fact that the global climate is continuously degrading year after year.


The Effects of Human Activity
The main cause of biodiversity loss in the area of human activity is with regards to humans’ land use practices. As we’ve entered the modern era, humans have used large expanses of land devoted towards food production, urbanization to accommodate the world’s growing population and cities, as well as rapid extraction of natural resources. These practices intrude upon species’ habitats, damaging their structures and oftentimes forcing the species to migrate elsewhere. However, in extreme cases where the species is unable to adapt to new areas, they may experience large declines in their population and may even face extinction.

Human activity also significantly affects biodiversity due to human greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions heavily contribute to the globe’s increasing temperatures and this subsequently impacts species since they are forced to relocate to new areas that can more effectively meet their needs. As a result, both the ecosystems they leave from and arrive at are greatly affected, usually in a negative manner.


Why is Biodiversity Essential for Combating Climate Change and Why Should We Be Concerned?
Our human activity across the globe produces a large amount of greenhouse gases. These are gases such as Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, and more, and they trap heat in the atmosphere. Normally, this would not be a significant issue. However, alongside the fact that global greenhouse gas emissions have been steadily increasing, global biodiversity is decreasing due to human activities. While about one half of human emissions go into the world’s atmosphere, the other half is absorbed by both the globe’s land and oceans. This warrants a significant concern since a wide variety of species, as well as the ecosystems they belong to, help to act as a natural “carbon sink”, providing a natural solution for human emissions and subsequently, climate change. However, our human activity is causing the disappearance of some of these species, decreasing our ability to naturally resolve the issue of climate change while it worsens ever further.

For More Information:
https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/climate-issues/biodiversity
https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases