Mo' Timber Money, Mo' Timber Probelms

The reading provided this week had many interesting points I could say I was aware of, but had specifics I wasn't. Food security is one I doubt many people think about. Rarely do our own food sources at home become insecure, but the Irish potato famine is an example of how biodiversity is necessary for our food supply to be healthy. Economic issues are always ones that surprise me when brought up with the environment. apparently while large amounts of harvest initially is the most immediate way to generate revenue, there are ecologically friendlier ways to make money with wildlife while maintaining biodiversity. Like that sweet cow example Mr. Schreer shared with us! Water purification is the last aspect of life i learned is affected by biodiversity. According to the article, many microorganisms are destroyed due to habitat loss, resulting in the water sources having nothing to filter certain compounds out.

Two ways this info relates to APES is economic and through food webs. Already I mentioned the potential loss of revenue that comes with a loss of biodiversity. Another point of interest is the conservation costs that are accumulating. The money needed for things like sanctuaries or bounties on invasion species is far into the billions range. The damage to our biodiversity is just as great now as the damage to our wallets. Another point of interest is the connection between biodiversity and the food webs we learned about. When a certain species goes missing from a web, it ultimately allows species above to dwindle and below to flourish. Very rarely does it work out where everything else survives, there is always collapse. The more diverse an ecosystem is, the more stable the web remains.

A question I have is about invasive species. Is there money in hunting these things? This is not an ethics or philosophical question but more about cold hard cash. Can a man make his living traveling abroad and killing all the animals and plants that are doing more harm than good? Maybe that's a good solution to our 2nd amendment infestation.