Fluent Essays

RequirementsWrite a summary for each reading. A summary highlights (emphasizes) the main points of a text.Structure your summary as follows:Name the author (or authors) and title of the text.Identify 2-3 of the major points or ideas of the reading. Be concise. Accurately represent the author’s writings. Use direct quotations from the text.Conclusion: What findings (evidence, conclusions) does the author give?Example of opening sentence:In “__________” (title of article) by __________ (author’s first and last name), the author documents…• Don’t copy sentences verbatim from the text. Summarize the reading in your own words.• Use present tense, for example:The article documents, describes, examines, etc.The author observes, writes, concludes by saying, etc.• Type the following at the top left or right corner of the front-page:Your first & last nameEnvironmental Problems & SolutionsWinter 2020Reading title & author(s)Getting startedGrab the reader’s attention by:Citing an interesting fact or statistic from the reading.Opening with a quote from the reading.Posing a question your summary will answer.Using examples from the reading.Word length• 2.5 pages typed.• 12-sized font (any style).• Double-spaced.• Print single-sided. eileen_crist_unraveling_earth___s_biodiversity.__2_.pdf Unformatted Attachment Preview The Unii’c’rsitl’ ot (Jiicago Presc EI LEEN CRIST 0/ Chicago and tniidoi Toward an Ecological CiviUzatiOl’l Abundant Earth 71 There are so man)’ stories narrated in scientific reports, naturalist and environmental writings, and the internet conveying the hiodiversity holocaust. Tropics going up in smoke; grasslands turned over to Im)nocuttures; for ests, coral reefs, savannalis, and steppes emptied of their animals; frogs, buttertlies, bats, sea horses, freshwater fish, and honeybees blinking out; dwindling migrations; in calculable numbers of wild fish fished out of existence; plummeting populations of big carnivores and herbivores; elephants and rhinos gunned down by the thousands; coastal dead zones nuiltiplying, and seas awash in plastic. While each story demands attention in its own right, it is only by congregating them in our mind’s eye that we can grasp the systemic scope of the crisis under way. Hu manity is dismantling the very qualities that constitute the living world: variety of life-forms, complexity of life’s interrelations, abundance of native beings and unique places on Earth, and diversity of nonhuman forms of awareness. These intertwined qualities form the cauldron of Earth’s beauty and creativity. They are the ground of life’s evolutionary power, fecundity, and endura nce. Biodiversity’s facets of diverse life-forms, abundances of wild organisms, complexity of ecological relations, and va riety of nonhuman lifeways may he described as the flame JULIA WHITTY The living membrane we so recklessly destroy is existence itself. Unraveling Earth’s Biodiversity ONE 12 eighteenth century, Imagine yourself one sunny morning in the late tions of a vast standing on the shores of Wales and watching the undula rs: predato of de school of herring dodging a multitu Abundant Life of species, of life. Flame of life is a metaphor for life’s richness at the levels largeand smalland subspecies, populations, genes, behaviors, minds, of more builds and scale ecotogies—a richness that is self-perpetuating life of flame itself over time. In the wake of the human onslaught, the is coming un is being extinguished. The richness of the living world diversity of our done as the human juggernaut eclipses the stupendous ically im biolog a into Earth the turning only cohort in the universe, .”1 infinity to ess lonelin our hing poverished human colony and “stretc of er takeov ale wholes the of e Biodiversity is disappearing becaus and pes, seasca and apes previously vast, connected, and free landsc ing wild the virtually unrestrained invasion into the planet’s remain , is thrives nature. Wilderness, the matrix within which biodiversity ar natural of shrinking and becoming fragmented, resembling shards ture ial agricul eas in the midst of hostile developments such as industr projects, sub mining uts, clear-c ays, highw roads, , fields, grazing ranges oil, coal, and and s, barrier cted constru urban sprawl, fences and other gas ventures. nmental How big the human sea has become is captured by enviro ver wild of ss bioma the analyst Vaclav Smil, who recently compared s. animal tic domes tebrate animals to the biomass of all humans and ates vertebr ial He found that “even the largest species of wild terrestr n of the global now have aggregate zoornass that is only a small fractio ates is now van anthropomass,” and that “the zoomass of wild vertebr animals.”2 In tic domes of ss bioma ishingly small compared to the s dwarves animal tic domes and s brief, the combined weight of human measure Smil’s s. animal ial that of the planet’s remaining wild terrestr tion, popula —of ionism starkly captures the upshot of human expans its and ity Human economic, agricultural, and infrastructural growth. es creatur wild domestic animals have overtaken the biosphere, while diversity, complex and places are dwindling. The destruction of life’s understanding ity, and abundance profoundly downgrades the human is vandalized world living the As . icence and experience of life’s magnif ingly oblivi increas e becom and its richness diminished, human beings ous to the full spectrum of Earth’s splendor. . . . . 13 among numerous other small fish. The eighteenth-century author who encountered the grand school with its attendant millions of predators exclaimed that “the whole water seemed alive.” Yet the scene intimates a bigger truth: the whole ocean was alive. This extraordinary display of marine wildlife was by no means excep tional, but typical of the biosphere’s abundance of biological phenom ena on land and seas. Biodiversity is often misunderstood as referring to species numbers on Earth (or in any given ecosystem). This conception does a disser vice to its meaning: numbers of species is a critical component of bio diversity, but biodiversity encompasses far more. The description above serves as an exhibit of its multilayered import. In the arrival of “the grand school,” we discern a diverse cast of species and can infer the ex istence of many more. We also see huge numbers of animals and their relationships—an ecology in motion. The scene additionally points to the ways abundant life significantly shapes the environment: the erst while vast numbers of marine animals contributed to churning the seas vertically and horizontally, distributing nutrients and molding physical and chemical conditions. The feasting mass also tells us about emergent phenomena of interacting life-forms; marine biologist Cal lum Roberts writes that the appearance of the herring and their preda tors “ranked as one of the world’s most remarkable wildlife phenom ena.”4 We additionally glimpse another intrinsic quality of the ocean: its immense store of nutrients to support such seemingly “inexhaust ible” numbers of herring5—even as the description depicts only one population of herring, while herring themselves are only one species . Millions of enemies appear to thin their squadrons. The fin whale and the sperm whale swallow barrels at a yawn; the porpoise, the grampus, the shark, and the whole numerous tribe of dogfish, find them an easy prey, and desist from making And the birds devour what quantities they please.3 war upon each other. . The arrival of the grand school [of herringJ is easily announced, by the number of its greedy attendants, the gannet, the gull, the shark and the porpoise. When the main body is arrived, its breadth and depth is such as to alter the very appearance of the ocean. It is divided into distinct colimns, of five or six miles in length, and three or four broad; while the water before them curls up, as if forced out of its bed. Sometimes they sink for the space of ten or fifteen minutes, then rise again to the surface; and, in bright weather, reflect a variety of splendid colors, like a field The whole water seems alive; and it is bespangled with purple, gold, and azure. seen so black with them to a great distance, that the number seems inexhaustible. 74 of biodiversity’s many dimen Even as this ensemble offers a view biodiversity’s crisis. The snapshot of sions, so it serves as a window into teenth-century description suggests life’s richness conveyed in this eigh is the profound declension that life a baseline to begin to understand to that ies spec of is the extinction experiencing. A paramount aspect the biosphere toward a mass ex ing head and day is extremely high this shortly.) Yet equally significant tinction event. (I will elaborate on n include plummeting numbers dimensions of biodiversity destructio life and biological phenomena they of wild organisms, the loss of wild beings’ ecological roles in food give rise to, the diminishment of wild the eclipse of their contributions in webs and nutrient circulation, and ical, and chemical environments. cocreating complex biological, phys dance, as described above, also The loss of such phenomena of abun ic ignorance surrounding biodiver lifts the curtain on the colossal publ momentous event has been con sity’s unraveling. Ignorance about this “the declining ecological baseline,” veyed through such expressions as “ecological amnesia”—all ways of “the extinction of experience,” and ness surrounding the eclipse of highlighting the collective oblivious as humanity is impoverishing the life’s former richness.6 Indeed, even s, exti rpations of populations, biosphere through species extinction ogenization, and silencing of the unwinding ecologies, biological hom most people encountering such de polyphony of nonhuman lifeways, as normal. Dimming knowledge pauperate environments regard them et ons surrounding the wealth of plan and shriveling experiential horiz n. is afflicted by life’s destructio Earth reveal how the human mind of the biosphere’s autochtonous The ongoing, cumulative forgetting i verge of losing the cosmic priv nature is bringing humanity to the the in nor, d ende preh er fully com lege of witnessing what can be neith nsic being. Earth’s being is a cos intri ’s Earth very tong run, subdued: the resonances of its innumerable mos that self-creates itself through -scale catastrophes, keep swelling members, who, barring rare and large ways s, abundant numbers, different into a plenum of diversified kind as a d relationships—all unfurling of life, and exquisitely convolute over geological time. The myriad, slow-motion upsurge of biodiversity of up into the luminous mandala intertwining living elements scale cho rsity dive led ileve mult . Life’s the biosphere that we belong with inorganic dimensions of Earth. the by, ed shap is it as reographs, even known universe, drawing wonder Earth is the most artful entity of the thomable stretches of time. ful compositions of life over unfa other migrating fish of the Old Not that long ago, the salmon and CHAPTER ONE 75 derful forms of life.8 Scientists do not often describe biodiversity in epic terms, but they do describe it comprehensively, as life’s variety at the levels of species, genes, and ecologies. Roughly two million species have been discov ered, with many more still undiscovered. The total figure remains un known with estimates spanning between five and thirty million.” “We live on a little known planet,” life scientist E. 0. Wilson likes to say.’° New species of worms, insects, fungi, plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish are discovered all the time. For example, 10 percent of all living coral hallowed islands and coastal seas. Rivers flowed free, nourishing some of the most life-abundant places on Earth within and around their waters. The world was filled with birds—seabirds, migrating birds, wading birds, flightless bkds, huge and tiny birds, colorful and drab birds, vast flocks of birds, and rap tors and scavengers with breathtaking wingspans. Massive herds trailed moving ecologies, plowing and fertilizing grasslands that overflowed in plenty, only to feed in turn the herds and their numerous, ever-inmotion attendants. Once the living world spoke to an Oglala Sioux named Black Elk, and lie recorded the following: “I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flower ing tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.”7 The biosphere gutted of diverse, abundant life is not normal. For the biosphere, normal is abounding in endless, won and New Worlds fed the animals, the trees, and the soil, and their num d bers still swelled to burst the rivers’ seams. Before people turne the were here d—t ated worl omin the an-d hum world into their ecu,neue— , el nean iterra the Med in es whal non, lions in Greece, cedars in Leba chs auro rica, h Ame Nort in ars ephants in China, wolves in Japan, jagu land and in ts Scot in Europe, bears in England, and temperate rain fores Ireland. There existed species of birds and fish that numbered in the , billions. Herds of hundreds of thousands ungulates, including yaks e antelopes, gazelles, and wild asses, animated the Tibetan plateau. Che s tiger sand red thou hund . One a india to h Afric tahs ranged from Nort , to India ria Sibe from and a gh Chin roamed from the Caspian Sea throu the s, and aton in meg krill ate and Sumatra, and Java. Whales abounded krill still proliferated to feed so many others. The carcasses and feces of millions of whales sustained a bizarre deep-sea life, one till recently , unknown. Not that long ago immense numbers of sharks, swordfish marlin, tuna, and other big fish traveled the ocean, and rainbows of UNRAVELING EARTH’S BIODIVERSITy 36 vered since 1993; 26 percent known mammal species have been disco discovered roughly in the same of all known amphibians have been period.1 ter variety: the plush, gray Within species diversity lies even grea nct populations that comprise a zone of subspecies, varieties, and disti actual biological entities, the des species. While “species” does refer to action. In the real world, a species ignation is, at the same time, an abstr try of living beings. To illustrate consists of a varied and dynamic tapes bian North America as many with a couple examples, in pre-Colum inental range.12 Wolves roamed as half a million wolves enjoyed cont (called “metapopulations”) and North America in distinct populations pecies. Africa and Asia were in were composed of at least three subs ric times. The total numbers habited by millions of rhinos into histo estimated around thirty thou of the five species of rhinos today are , the Sumatran rhino, and the sand, and three species—the black rhino Similar profiles were extant Javan rhino—are critically endangered.’3 large numbers, wide ranges, dif in many other species that existed in lations prior to being decimated. ferent subspecies, and distinct popu ies define a vital facet of biodiver Indeed, distinct populations of a spec al scale is, or more precisely sity: metapopulation diversity at the glob was, enormous.’4 ns, total population numbers, Historic ranges, distinct metapopulatio titutive of the elliptical, mono subspecies, and varieties are all cons understanding of how species lithic notion of species. A more nuanced ary phenomenology of life—to manifest opens a vista to the extraordin tiful manifestations. At a bio the experiential dimension of its boun point to something equally vital logical level, the above dimensions rsity. According to biologists Ro though far more hidden: genetic dive (and only partly explored) degree dolfo Dirzo and Peter Raven, a huge in populations as well as between of rich genetic variation exists with composed of populations that are them. “Many species,” they add, “are one another.”5 Genetic diversity more or less genetically distinct from for it underpins the resilience of is an indispensable ingredient of life, flux. Variation at the genetic life-forms in the face of environmental compositions, so that species level enables nature to mold new life ified and diversified over geologi are not only retained but also mod cal time. variation as well. Diversity of Biodiversity includes rich ecological are morphologically and physi places, composed of life assemblies that ’s biodisperity.’6 Continents and ologically distinct, is described as Earth masses separated hundreds of mu islands (both being types of land CHAPTER ONE 17 species may be.’6 This describes the cataclysmic impact humanity is inflicting. The rate of extinction today is estimated to be one thousand times greater than the rate of background or natural extinction (the rate of extinc tion absent the human factor).19 What’s more, with life’s destruction intensifying, the rate of extinction is expected to quicken in this cen The extinction crisis is a profound dimension of biological impoverish ment. Because of life’s evolutionary power (its ability to generate new life-forms) and its facility in spreading over the biosphere, biodiversity has steadily increased over time, beginning about 3.8 billion years ago and accelerating after the Cambrian explosion some 550 million years ago. Biodiversfty’s gradual swell has been virtually uninterrupted be cause the emergence of new species tends to be higher than the back ground (or natural) extinction of species.’7 This typical situation is an nulled during episodes of mass extinction when catastrophic events, originating within or outside the planet, obliterate upward of 75 per cent of Earth’s species—no matter how well adapted or abundant those The Systemic Assault on Life will fall short. for unique communities of beings. Humanity is driving immense losses at all levels—species, genes (i.e., subspecies, varieties, overall numbers, and metapopulations), and ecol ogies. Life’s diversity is in free fall on multiple fronts, through multiple causes, and in multiple places. The onslaught under way foreshadows the imminent reckoning of biodiversity destruction: humanity anni hilating a living cornucopia that is self-replenishing and self-creative, and leaving in its wake a diminished, human-colonized planet. The systemic character of this onslaught impels us to recognize that if un manity chooses to keep life’s flame ablaze, biodiversity collapse must be addressed at the scale it is occurring—piecemeal, bandage solutions og lions of years ago) became home to native, unique life lineages. Ecol s h refer whic me,” “bio term the gh red throu ical diversity is also captu als, anim t ts, nden plan depe d of inter prise to large-scale ecologies com fungi, and other life-forms within specific regions, climates, and alti tudes. Examples include wet and dry tropical forests, temperate and bo real forests, deserts and alpine biomes, river watersheds and estuaries, grasslands and shrublands, tundra, continental shelves, and the high seas. Distinct ecologies are—or into historic times have been—homes UNRAVELING EARTH’S BIODIVERSITY 18 extinction.23 word available for the death “Extinction” is, misleadingly, the only nitude, mode, or circumstance. of species—irrespective of cause, mag fact that extinction does not refer The word’s singularity obscures the and background extinctions, in par to a uniform class of events. Mass omena. Background extinctions do ticular, are entirely disparate phen life, but are surpassed in magnitude not herald the wholesale decline of le in the case of background extinc by the birth of new life-forms. Whi with mass extinction obliteration tion the creative force of life prevails, a setback that it takes millions rules. Mass extinction results in such a new chapter of biodiversity— of years for the biosphere to generate all human generations to come, If a timeline that is meaningless for of opportunity now to avert the humanity does not seize the window le will be a vastly and irrevers extinction crisis, our legacy to all peop thus engaged,” as biologists Norman ibly impoverished planet. “We are by far the largest ‘decision’ ever Myers and Andrew Knoll put it, “in efforts—and ultimately, without tury. Without concerted conservation se—Wilson predicts that half the a profound shift in historical cour by century’s end. Others es world’s plants and animals will be gone s of Earth’s species.2° The bio timate that losses could reach two-third episode called the Sixth Ex sphere is in the throes of a mass extinction als the occurrence of five in tinction because the geological record reve cketed between best- and worstthe last 540 or so million years.21 “Bra Whitty, “somewhere between 2.7 case scenarios,” writes naturalist Julia every day. Including today.”22 and 270 species are erased from existence rring rapidly—in geological Anthropogenic mass extinction is occu time almost in an instant. extinction is natural be A circulating platitude that h ... Purchase answer to see full attachment