The effect of industrialization and deforestation on biodiversity

Introduction

Industrialization is classified as the development of industries in a region on a wide scale, the key word here is ‘ wide-scale’, in order for industrialization to occur, we need to alter the ecosystem in a sense that the land must be cleared, the consequences of our inclination will be fatal or at least be causing an immense amount of harm towards mother nature. Biodiversity is in this context defined as all the populations of different species of various organism interacting together in an ecosystem. The way both factors intertwine together alone is mesmerising, a beauty craftwork made perfect by mother nature herself.

Overview

There are many consequences of industrialization, the majority of those are subtle and indirect, every action leads to multiple consequences, much like a chain in which the outcomes are completely random and unpredictable. Unfortunately, most of the consequences when discovered are already in a stage where damages did are irreversible, the primary cause of this is mainly due to the lack of awareness within our population, resulting in unaware people, lacking the fundamental knowledge about the secrets of this chaotic destruction. Above all was what happened many many years ago, in this globalised world, where education is widely available (well at least in most countries), I believe that we are well aware and educated to take actions to inhibit such rapid rate of deforestation, unfortunately what is holding us back from taking action is the hesitation, ignorance and fear that is deeply embedded inside our mindsets.

Reason of Choice

The reason I chose this topic is because I find it very intriguing to discover new things about nature, due to the fact that nature is knowledge, ready to be discovered and we are constantly showered with an abundance of new information to be learned and analysed, such as the behaviour of different animals in different situations, the growth pattern of plants and fungi species and the entire outlook of the ecosystem. All of them interacting together just like a complex web that supports each other to sustain what we call “ life”. On the same hand, one of my many reasons to choose this topic is that I want to make an impact on many animals life by creating awareness to the public as this topic is a serious issue worldwide and the consequences are fatal if left ignored in the long term.

Furthermore, a wider range of discovery will lead to the improvement of medicine and engineering, a classic example is a group of engineers, known as the wright brothers, who observed the way an eagle glide in the air and successfully built a working model, known as the plane in today’s world. Who says we can only observe what we can see, alexander fleming, a world renowned biologist observed the way fungi produce antibiotics to reduce competition of other species such as bacteria by killing them, both examples above are closely related to medicine and ecology.

Possibility and Probability

How does industrialization and deforestation co-relate to loss biodiversity and ecosystems? Well, the truth is that they are similar by comparison, in a nutshell, everybody has different perspectives, in most cases we will say yes, this is when our subconscious logical mind kicks in, where immediate decisions are made. Do not mistaken me, I am not saying that it is wrong, the message I am trying to portray is that we have a habit of jumping right into decisions without considering all the possible outcomes, such actions have actually helped our species evolve, without them we would cease to exist, but the question is “ is it a necessity to use our power of ‘ thinking without thinking” (blink).

This method of visualising and solving the problem is a risky bet, in the long run, the two outcomes are either we succeed well, in a sense that dynamic balance is achieved by humans and other species or the plans go downhill, where the future of life is monotonous which consists of only human to human interaction with other species all extinct, hence our future generations can only enjoy the idea of animal from a digital standpoint by either viewing images or videos of long-gone animals.

Problems Faced

The development of cities via industrialization leads to deforestation, therefore more trees are removed, likewise less plants also mean less photosynthesis, less food and less shelter for various native species. This causes population migration or even death for the ones that were unable to cope and adapt to the immediate change. To answer this question we must look behind the mask of the course of action. Industrialization created viable special-purpose machinery, factories and mass production of livestock and sources of food increased exponentially along with the development of the steam engine during the late 1700s, since industrialization we have been brought up with an increased volume of food along with manufactured goods and an improved standard of living such as sewage treatment and the discovery of antibiotics have drastically improved the quality and quantity of our life. (Truth be told, I love to relate several topics to my research including biology, natural science, ecology and nutrient cycles).