Summary
Highlights
Biodiversity refers to the variety of different species within an ecosystem or on Earth. High biodiversity, like that found in rainforests, creates stable ecosystems where the loss of one species doesn't collapse the entire system. It also provides essential services, such as pollination (e.g., 200,000 species of pollinators for fruits like apples and avocados) and the source of over half of new medical drugs.
Despite its importance, human activities significantly reduce biodiversity. A major factor is the exponential growth of the human population, increasing from 300 million to 7.7 billion in the last 1,000 years. Each individual also consumes more resources due to higher living standards and demand for consumer goods, leading to faster depletion of natural resources than they can be replaced, exemplified by the extinction of the western black rhino due to poaching.
To acquire resources, natural ecosystems are often cleared through processes like deforestation. Additionally, humans produce vast amounts of waste that pollutes water, land, and air. This includes sewage, industrial chemicals, agricultural chemicals affecting aquatic life, toxic chemicals seeping from landfills and nuclear waste storage, and industrial emissions like sulfur dioxide, which can directly harm organisms or cause acid rain. All these forms of pollution change ecosystems and reduce biodiversity, further compounded by greenhouse gas emissions contributing to global warming.