Sustainability is making it so resources last a long time and are available for future generations. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal this research centers on is global goal #14, life on land. One problem our world faces is biodiversity loss. Due to global warming, species of animals and plants are dying. Animals don’t have enough water and food. According to Britannica, ‘’biodiversity loss is a decrease in species, an ecosystem, a given geographic area, or Earth as a whole.” Fortunately, there are a variety of sustainable practices that can improve our lives and the world such as rewilding and saving the bee population.
One sustainable practice is rewilding. Rewilding is when animals become extinct in a specific area and the scientist finds the same animals and puts them back in that area. According to the PBS Nature series, “45 wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone” in 1995. The wolves became extinct in Yellowstone. The scientist put a few wolves to kill some of the elk to help keep the grasses and berries healthy in the grassland. This helped balance the elk population and provided the land with more grass and berries. Another example of rewilding that has happened was with bison in Manitoba. According to CBC News (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News), “A big part of this was revitalizing the land, having flora and fauna that haven’t been there for over 150 years back to the original state of the land when the bison were all roaming free.” When the Europeans colonized America bison were dying from lack of land. Then according to CBC News, the native grasses and microbes died and the land was not healthy anymore, the birds couldn’t eat. “The goal is to grow the herd to 150 bison for land revitalization.” CBC News suggests that when the bison came back the birds, small animals, and insects came back since grassland got healthy. When bison poop, the poop has nutrients for soil to make grassland healthy. Bison poop and leave it on the ground to make wallows which collect water and help birds, insects, and small animals have food.
Another sustainable practice is saving the bees. The honey bees are dying because of global warming and impacting the size and quality of crop fields so plant diversity is diminished, which kills insects, birds, and small mammals. According to Zurich.com, ‘’Bees play a key role in maintaining biodiversity through pollination, the act of transferring pollen grains between plants for fertilization and the production of seeds.” Bees help us to grow fruits, vegetables, and flowers and help keep biodiversity alive. According to Zurich, farmers are using pesticides. This could kill the bees on direct contact or the bees bring it back and it spreads the pesticide to the hive. “Any reduction in the use of pesticides is helpful to bees, so supporting local organic farmers.” According to Goodful: 8 Practical Things You Can Do To Save The Bees, it is good to buy from organic farmers because they don’t use pesticides and bees don’t get killed. So, there is more pollination and biodiversity to life and crops.
Clearly, biodiversity loss is a big problem on Earth right now because of global warming. However, some solutions to manage this problem are rewilding and saving the bees. This will prevent biodiversity loss due to global warming.
References
Zurich Insurance Group | Zurich Insurance, https://www.zurich.com/. Accessed 13 November 2024.
“8 Practical Things You Can Do To Help The Bees.” YouTube, 8 November 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMyd8JtFSzQ. Accessed 13 November 2024.
Encyclopedia Britannica | Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/. Accessed 13 November 2024.
“Nature.” PBS, https://www.pbs.org/show/nature/. Accessed 14 November 2024.
CBC News. “Why bison are being reintroduced on the Prairies.” YouTube, 27 December 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsloCRXkTfo. Accessed 14 November 2024.
