Aggie: “Dad, what is biodiversity?”
Dr. Bulwark: “Aggie my daughter, today you have asked a very important question, a question which is present in front of us, but we never try to know about it with a keen interest. Aggie, you can say that biodiversity is like stars. When you look at the sky, as far as you can see, you will just see stars. More than thousands of stars are present, each having its own importance but still all of them are living together and that too peacefully. Similarly, Aggie, biodiversity is a huddle of different species of flora, fauna, humans, etc. that lives together on Gaia.”
Aggie: “So dad, is biodiversity important for us?”
Dr. Bulwark: “As you love Science, so just imagine if any infection gets inside your body than who is the first line of defense of your body?”
Aggie: “Dad it is obvious, White Blood Cells.”
Dr. Bulwark: “Exactly. You can say that White Blood Cells are the reason because of which we are alive, similarly biodiversity acts as White Blood Cells, but the only difference between the two is that biodiversity contains thousands of species of White Blood Cells, each protecting Gaia in its own way.”
Aggie: “Dad, can you tell how?”
Dr. Bulwark: “Let me take example of India, India is a mega diverse country that means you can find maximum type of flora and fauna in India. Just imagine, one day you find that Tigers got extinct from India, the death of entire species of tiger will automatically have a very adverse effect on the entire food chain in India. As tigers are no more, this means populations of weaker animals will increase, due to which their consumption of food would increase and automatically an outburst sort of situation would take place. If many herbivores would be present, this would mean in reduction of foods and vegetables that are grown. Due to increase in herbivores a sharp increase in overgrazing would be seen. Due to this soil erosion would take place, as the soil is having chemicals in it, during the time of rainfall, the entire chemicals present in that soil will get eroded with the soil. A time would come when the loosen soil would get eroded into the sea and entire aquatic life would get disturbed. So, you can see how absence of a single species can lead to massive destruction.
Similarly, if I speak about Vaquita, smallest Porpoise species, their extinction will indirectly lead to destruction of sharks. As, if Vaquita dies, one of the primary food of sharks would die. Due to this it would become tough for sharps to survive and if sharks would get extinct than one day, population of smaller fishes would increase sharply, again not only disturbing the entire food chain but also the entire ecosystem.
Like this if I speak about plants, I can say that extinction of several species of plants would put the entire Ayurvedic industry into danger and this would directly put those people in dangers who believe in the power of Ayurveda.
Similarly, there are a thousand of ways through which extinction of just one species can disturb the flow of our entire ecosystem.”
Aggie: “So dad, is it really necessary for us to prevent these losses?”
Dr. Bulwark: “Let me be a bit philosophical; just tell me if I remove your heart from your body, what will happen?”
Aggie: “Come on dad, is it really a question to be asked, even a third grader can tell what without heart we would just DIE.”
Dr. Bulwark: “Exactly, this is what I want to tell you. Without heart, we cannot live, in the same way without balance, even Gaia cannot survive. You would know that Amazon is on fire, one of the prime reasons for that fire is Global warming, which got increased because of our (human) misdeeds. Amazon is just like a part of our heart, if even a small part of our heart stops functioning, we would die, similarly Amazon fire would destroy thousands of floras and fauna present inside it, leading to destruction of mankind.
So, we can say that the biggest consequence of biodiversity loss is that it would destroy Gaia.”
Aggie: “Dad, can you tell me the reason for the loss of biodiversity?”
Dr. Bulwark: “Child, I can just say that for different species, there are different reasons for the loss, for example, it is because of poaching that many rare species are dying, creating a big disturbance in our eco system network. Similarly, in case of coral reef, they are dying because of oil spill, again putting life of thousands in danger and the list goes on.”
Aggie: “So dad what would you like to suggest?”
Dr. Bulwark: “Aggie as an environmentalist, I would say that we must have passion for other species also, without passion we cannot survive on Gaia. We know that for a mother, all her children our equal. In the same way, Gaia is our mother and for her all the species living on her are equal.
Aggie we must understand that this world is just like an electric circuit, as long as the wire (species) is connected to the battery (Gaia), the current (life) will flow. But the moment the wire breaks, everything stops.”