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The threat of extinct looms over 1 million species of animals and plants because of human activities, announced a recent UN report. Many of these are looking at only a few decades of life left.
Now, here’s the irony. The mess that humans have created doesn’t just endanger these 1 million species. The extinction of these species and the change in our environment can have a massive impact on humans, their health and their survival.
How is the health of humans dependent on species like insects or coral reefs? The answers have big red warning signs for us.
To gauge the impact on human health, we need to first understand how the change in environment is killing these extinction-threatened species.
The species at this deadly risk include more than 40 percent of amphibians, 33 percent of coral reefs and over a third of all marine mammals.
The report points out five main reasons for this loss of species.
Studies and experts suggest there are several direct and indirect ways in which loss of such species can affect human health and survival.
If you remember basic biology lessons, you’d recall that the interactions between animals, plants, humans and the environment make up a complex web. Any disturbance to this can have far-reaching effects.
For instance, humans need food to survive. More than three-quarters of the world’s food crops rely, at least in part, on the activities of bees, wasps, butterflies and other pollinators, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The new UN report found that 10 percent of insect species are under threat.
Coral reefs are also under threat. They’re the perfect example of how hotter temperatures are eliminating certain species. If the world warms another 0.5 degrees Celsius, which other reports say is likely, coral reefs will probably dwindle by 70 percent to 90 percent, the report said.
How is this of importance for humans?
We need oxygen to survive, a lot of which comes from the ocean. And reefs are crucial for a healthy ocean.
A World Economic Forum article quotes an expert’s explanation on this:
Here’s another scary example of how this affects us.
Invasive species. For humans, one of the most dangerous effects of invasive alien species is that they can be a carrier of disease. These species are in habitats that they shouldn’t naturally be. This also brings them closer to human contact.
Let’s understand it with an example closer to home.
When the Nipah virus outbreak hit southern India, specifically Kerala, there were reports suggesting that a possible reason for this unusual spread was the loss of habitat of bats.
According to a World Health Organization (WHO) fact sheet, "there is strong evidence that emergence of bat-related viral infection communicable to humans and animals has been attributed to the loss of natural habitats of bats."
Speaking to FIT, Prof Ramanan Laxminarayan of Centre for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy (CDDEP) had said:
There could be many other ways in which this disastrous change in environment and loss of species affects humans, some documented, some being researched and some waiting in the wings to ambush us.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)
Published: 09 May 2019,03:26 PM IST