Green Options

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Editor’s note: For the last few months, we have run a number of guest posts from students in Professor Simran Sethi’s “Media and the Environment” course at the University of Kansas. We’ve all been pretty impressed with the work these students have done, so we were delighted to agree to publish a small-group final project from students J.J. DeSimone, Lindsay Crupper, Denzyl Janneker, Bobby Grace, and Adam Bowman. They focused on biodiversity in their project, and we’ll publish all five parts over the course of this week. Today’s post was originally published on May 9, 2008.

As humans, we collectively tend to be self-absorbed and not think outside our sphere of influence. More specifically, if something in the world doesn’t directly affect us we give little or no attention to it (I’m one of the worst culprits, myself). As such, it’s very easy for us not to think about what human wastefulness and global warming are doing to our plant and animal life. However, losing our earth’s bio and eco-diversity has frightening ramifications for humanity.

Photo credit: Adam Bowman

Taken in the Uintah Mountains, this photo illustrates what humans could lose unless they act to preserve open spaces.

According to Baker University Biology Professor and Natural Areas Director Roger Boyd, biodiversity is the amount of species in a given area. More broadly, eco-diversity refers to the number of ecosystems there are on the planet. If eco and biodiversity continues to decrease on the planet, then less food is available to sustain life. In essence, all of the earth’s biological life is interconnected; if our furry and scale-covered brethren run out of food, so do we.

A report released Wednesday from the World Conservation Union (IUCN) predicts an 80% population decline of the most common type of gorilla, the Western Gorilla, from 1980 levels by 2046. The 2007 Red List of Threatened Species finds "commercial hunting and outbreaks of the Ebola virus have virtually extirpated gorillas from a great deal of otherwise intact forest" where they were previously thought to thrive.

"What’s immediately needed if we are to halt the

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Rabbit CareEditor's note: We're pleased to welcome Gavin Hudson to our blogging team. Gavin lives in Seattle, and has worked for the Jane Goodall Institute, particularly its "Roots and Shoots" program. He'll be covering activism topics for us, particularly those that you can implement in your quest to "green the good life."

Do you dream of working with animals? Find out how you can volunteer at your local zoo or

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