We Have One Chance Left | Teen Ink

We Have One Chance Left

March 15, 2017
By Luc101703 BRONZE, Clarkston, Michigan
Luc101703 BRONZE, Clarkston, Michigan
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

This is Earth. Our planet that we must continue to live on for many more years. I am a strong believer in the fact that all lives are the same and we should not destroy pointless lives that we don't need to destroy. Habitats are extremely important and we don’t need most of the resources we take from the environment. We urgently need to stop destroying animal habitats for goods that aren't necessary for our everyday life.


Habitat loss is possibly the greatest threat to the natural world. and we keep on destroying them. Without habitats, everything will fail. And what do we do? We destroy them for our own selfish needs. We only need the basics, food, water, and a roof over our heads. "Every living thing needs somewhere to live, find food and reproduce. This is known as its habitat. In order for a species to be viable, its habitat must have
sufficient territory, necessary food and water and a range of necessary physical features. These features can include tree cover, rocky hills or deep pools, as well as the organisms and ecosystems that are needed to complete the life cycle."(habitat loss and degradation)  This describes a habitat, and how necessary it is. Not only are we killing animals that have done nothing to us, we are killing trees and plants that use photosynthesis to provide us with the air we need to breathe and survive. We are not only killing other life, but that will result in killing ourselves. "Habitat loss is generally more serious for the larger animals because they need a greater area in which to have a healthy breeding population. Tigers, mountain gorillas, pandas and Indian lions are good examples, but habitat loss does not just affect animals.(habitat loss and degradation)" This at the end says that animals aren't the only ones affected by habitat loss. It also affects us. We are the ones doing it, and in a way we are the problem, not habitat loss. We need to stop before we kill ourselves.


Sadly, there are various ways for people to destroy our environment and the animals that live in them. There are many forms that one needs to be wary of. An explanation of habitat destruction is: "A bulldozer pushing down trees is the iconic image of habitat destruction. Other ways that people are directly destroying habitat, include filling in wetlands, dredging rivers, mowing fields, and cutting down trees. (Habitat Loss)" As you can see, it is a direct way of destroying an animal's habitat. A more discrete way is Habitat Fragmentation, where you are dividing a larger habitat. "Much of the remaining terrestrial wildlife habitat in the U.S. has been cut up into fragments by roads and development. Aquatic species’ habitat has been fragmented by dams and water diversions. These fragments of habitat may not be large or connected enough to support species that need a large territory in which to find mates and food. The loss and fragmentation of habitat make it difficult for migratory species to find places to rest and feed along their migration routes. (Habitat Loss)" The last one is habitat degradation, this includes “pollution, invasive species that disrupt the food chain, and break up natural ecosystem processes. (Habitat Loss)” These are all things that we can stop, and I urge you to do so!


We need the animals. We need the trees. We need everything nature has to offer, trees give oxygen, and animals live on this planet too. So what do we do? We cut trees down and kill animals for our own selfish needs. Some may say we do not need the trees or animals, but this is not the case. According to Reference.com, "Plants are necessary because they are a primary food source and provide the oxygen that is vital to animals' and humans' existence. A majority of the calories that people consume comes from plants, and most meat comes from animals that eat plants. (Why do we need plants?)" As you can see, we need everything and we can't afford to pointlessly kill them for things we don't need. Also, " If all plant life disappeared, animals would die quickly. Most animals eat plants, and most carnivores eat animals that eat plants. Animals have no means of creating the fuel they need without food, and the only remaining life on earth would be single-celled organisms. (why do we need plants?)" If we continue to kill plants we will all die. We are only doing this to ourselves and as we kill plants, we kill ourselves. The trees don’t like being cut down.  This is why plant life is significant and why we should not destroy it.


Another important part to be brought up is what we use the trees we cut down for. Generally, we use it for things we do not need to live, while the animals need the trees to live. According to RainforestConcern.org, We use wood for cattle ranching, where we cut down trees to get cheap beef, logging, cutting down trees to use in our everyday life, agriculture, and we cut down wood in order to farm and mine. We use wood to get minerals from the earth, oil companies, where we use wood to drill for oil, and dams, using wood to control water. Only a few of these things we actually need. Others, like getting the cheap beef, we do not. It is estimated that for every pound of beef, 200 square feet of trees are destroyed. And Americans eat a lot of beef. In fact, Cattle ranching makes up for 50% of deforestation. Now ask yourself, do we really need some beef at the exchange of many of our trees?


We are killing far too many plants and animals every year that have done nothing to us. In fact, they are helping us.  Around half of the world's original forests have disappeared, and they are still being removed at a rate 10 times higher than any possible level of regrowth. the tropical forests contain at least half the Earth's species, the clearance of some 17 million hectares each year is a dramatic loss. A Hecate is 100 square acres. We cannot regrow the trees, as we are cutting them down far too fast. In Amazon Rainforest, there are 477, 690, 000 Hecate's of trees. That is just 28 short years before we completely run out of trees in the amazon rainforest, and we can't plant them fast enough. Also, moving onto animals. At least 70 species of frogs, mostly mountain-dwellers that had nowhere to go to escape the creeping heat, have gone extinct because of climate change, the analysis says. It also reports that between 100 and 200 other penguins and polar bears are in deep trouble. Because of global warming, we are killing frogs and many arctic animals... just because we are selfish and want things we don't need.  We need to stop taking wood for things we don't need.


In this essay, you have learned why we need to stop taking trees from the environment. It is extremely wrong and most importantly, the animals need their habitats. It is an awful method of animal abuse and we need to stop as soon as possible.


The author's comments:

I love animals and i hate what we are doing to them.


Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.