Human Protection by the Environment
I came across this great article while seaching the web today. Basically, those areas with "intact coral reefs, mangroves, vegetated dunes and robust coastal forests came off better than those degraded by pollution and insensitive land use." I think the protection that is offered to us by creating a healthy ecosystem around us is often overlooked. Just look anywhere that we have devegitated a hillside, and you will find potential for a mudslide. Obviously the environment won't protect us 100% from potential disasters, but I would welcome the added protection. Sometimes this makes me wonder of our our coastline, especially reading this article. I hope that we can help regenerate our coastline and help protect ourselves for the future.
posted by Nicole and Andy @ 4:09 PM
2 Comments:
This concept of allowing the environment to remain is so logical that it is sort of sad how long it has taken for may people to see. I suppose that it has just been the mindset for so long that we are intelligent beings we know better than anything else. Of course that had lead to the destruction of many things becuase of our over use and "making things better." If we allow the environment to exist as it evolved, we will be better off. We can't even just create one kind of area because it has worked in one place, each separate locality has different variations that creates different requirements for the system. That is what organisms and ecosystems have evolved for, the creation of the most efficient use of their system. That is not to say that "nature knows best" becuase without boundaries and controls things go really wrong as was shown through the presentation on how elk can desimate a system if they do not have any sort of controls.
One example of a non-human problem: Louisiana’s coast line has a very serious erosion problem. One of the major reasons for this problem in its beautiful coastal wetlands is the over-“grazing” of a non native rodent called the Nutria Rat. They are roughly the size of a Beaver with a huge rat like tail and they multiply faster than Jack Rabbits. These Nutria are dining on needed vegetation that results erosion. To help combat the problem there are some who have decided to dine on the Rat and there now are Cajun cookbooks that feature Nutria for dinner. It’s a mistake to think that human presents is separate from the environment and then attempt to create an environment that would exist without the presence of humans. Humans are part of the environment and the intricate workings of an ecosystem.
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