Why be concerned about the loss of a species?

 Why should we care about the loss of a species?

At a presentation on Monarch butterflies and how to help avoid their extinction, an audience member asked, “Why do we care if they are gone?”

Extinction is a natural process that has been occurring since long before the existence of man. Normally, new species develop, through a process known as speciation, at about the same rate that other species become extinct. However, because of air and water pollution, forest clearing, loss of wetlands, and other man-induced environmental changes, extinctions are now occurring at a rate that far exceeds the speciation rate. 

Global Carbon Project

Each extinction of animals and plants diminishes the biodiversity and complexity of life on earth. The loss of a single species may result in few environmental repercussions; however, all life on earth is interconnected. If enough "living connections" are broken, whole ecosystems could fail the balance of nature could be forever altered, and our own survival could be jeopardized. Furthermore, the diversity of animal and plant life provide us with food and many of our life-saving medicines. When a species is lost, the benefits it might have provided are gone forever. Consider that these medicines are from plants: Aspirin from willow tree bark, morphine from poppies, digitalis from foxglove. 

The Connection

It is important to note that extinction – the permanent loss of species – is a natural process that is counterpoint to speciation, the creation of new species through evolution.

Background or “normal” rates of extinction vary through time but are typically in the order of one to two species per year. Current rates of extinction, however, are estimated to have reached 1000 to 10,000 times this rate. Put bluntly, the annual species body count is no longer a mere handful, it’s an avalanche.

But why should it matter to us if we have a few less species? The simple answer is that we are connected to and deeply dependent on other species. From pollination of our crops by bees, to carbon storage by our forests, and even the bacteria in our mouths, we rely upon biodiversity for our very existence. We neglect this at our own peril. And, of course, there are equally justified arguments for keeping species based purely on their aesthetic and cultural importance, or for their own sake.

Doom-and-gloom predictions tend to paralyze us, rather than jolting us into action. So what can be done? There are wonderful examples of individuals and organizations working at both small and large scales to tackle and even sometimes turn back the tide of extinctions.

There are also some compelling personal approaches, such as that of Alejandro Frid who is writing a series of letters to his daughter as a way of confronting the issues of climate change and biodiversity loss. But what is urgently needed, of course, is radical change in society as a whole in the way it interacts with its environment.

~Carol Kagan