According to an article entitled,"
Widespread Stream Biodiversity Declines at Low Levels of Urban Development", which you can read by clicking on the following link:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110608122958.htmHuman urban development activities are causing a reduction in the diversity of life found in streams!! Researchers at Baylor University and the University of Maryland-Baltimore concluded this due to their findings in a recent study."The study found that aquatic life actually shows significant loss of biodiversity with
less than two percent of developed land in a watershed!!" Clearly this shows that human behaviors involved in developing land cause the natural waterways in these areas to be severely disrupted!
"The findings are alarming and imply that water quality in streams is degraded rapidly with relatively low levels of development, which clearly has significant implications to the organisms that live in these streams," said study co-author Dr. Ryan King, associate professor of biology at Baylor. "Perhaps of even greater concern is that the decline of stream-dwelling animals implies that there is chemical pollution that could also be detrimental to human health via groundwater and downstream drinking water supplies."
Let us hope that due to the findings of this research study that Governments of this planet will begin to place some serious limitations on the development of land and waterways in this planet! These findings to me suggest that their are simply too many human beings on this planet and this level of human population is overwhelming nature! Either that or there has been a severe over-development of this planet's land and water resources.
If we humans cause a reduction in the biodiversity of life on this planet then we can expect some severe consequences. To learn what these consequences are please visit the following website:
http://www.greenfacts.org/en/biodiversity/ and read the answer to the question: "2. Why is biodiversity loss a concern?"
Other information about this situation can be read by clicking on these links:
http://www.globalissues.org/article/171/loss-of-biodiversity-and-extinctions "In our eagerness to improve living conditions for the six billion members of our species, we humans are imposing serious threats to the survival of much biodiversity, including many species whose direct value is clearly established. Almost all ecosystems are greatly modified by humans, who transform habitats and exterminate rivals and competitors. Resulting from this array of human threats, rates of extinction are now estimated to be between 1,000 and 10,000 times greater than in the recent past." (source:
http://www.jri.org.uk/brief/biodiversity.htm )
An investigation into the causes of endangerment for 877 species in the United States found that the vast majority were caused by expansion of human economic activities!! (See charts directly below):
Maybe the time has come for all countries to place severe restrictions on population levels on this planet! Instead of having their own children, couples need to rather think about adopting children! The annual number of child adoptions worldwide is only 250,000 (source:
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2007/07/08/child_adoptions_worldwide/ ).
