Habitat Loss

Modern Day Plague – Habitat Loss

Habitat loss is probably the greatest threat to the variety of life on this planet today. It is identified as a main threat to 85% of all species described in the IUCN’s Red List (those species officially classified as “Threatened” and “Endangered”).

Deforestation is clearing Earth’s forests on a massive scale, often resulting in damage to the quality of the land. Forests still cover about 30 percent of the world’s land area.

Forests are cut down for many reasons, but most of them are related to money or to people’s need to provide for their families.

Deforestation has many negative effects on the environment. The most dramatic impact is a loss of habitat for millions of species. Seventy percent of Earth’s land animals and plants live in forests, and many cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their homes.

Deforestation also drives climate change. Forest soils are moist, but without protection from sun-blocking tree cover they quickly dry out. Trees also help perpetuate the water cycle by returning water vapor back into the atmosphere. Without trees to fill these roles, many former forest lands can quickly become barren deserts.

Removing trees deprives the forest of portions of its canopy, which blocks the sun’s rays during the day and holds in heat at night. This disruption leads to more extreme temperatures swings that can be harmful to plants and animals.

Trees also play a critical role in absorbing the greenhouse gases that fuel global warming. Fewer forests means larger amounts of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere—and increased speed and severity of global warming.

The quickest solution to deforestation would be to simply stop cutting down trees. Though deforestation rates have slowed a bit in recent years, financial realities make this unlikely to occur.

A more workable solution is to carefully manage forest resources by eliminating clear-cutting to make sure that forest environments remain intact. The cutting that does occur should be balanced by the planting of enough young trees to replace the older ones felled in any given forest. The number of new tree plantations is growing each year, but their total still equals a tiny fraction of the Earth’s forested land.

Damage to Biodiversity

One of the biggest negative impacts of quarrying on the environment is the damage to biodiversity. Biodiversity essentially refers to the range of living species, including fish, insects, invertebrates, reptiles, birds, mammals, plants, fungi and even micro-organisms. Biodiversity conservation is important as all species are interlinked, even if this is not immediately visible or even known, and our survival depends on this fine balance that exists within nature.

Quarrying carries the potential of destroying habitats and the species they support. Even if the habitats are not directly removed by excavation, they can be indirectly affected and damaged by environmental impacts – such as changes to ground water or surface water that causes some habitats to dry out or others to become flooded. Even noise pollution can have a significant impact on some species and affect their successful reproduction. Nevertheless, with careful planning and management, it is possible to minimise the effect on biodiversity and in fact, quarries can also provide a good opportunity to create new habitats or to restore existing ones.