What is Biodiversity , and Why is It Important?

 Reading this excerpt by Vandana Shiva, I instantly went to look her up to see where she was from. Not only her name, but she took shots at the “Western World" as she called it.   And sure enough she was from India. Although I agree with much she had to say, I think she also fails to see America might be one of the more environmentally cautious places in the world. And although we made mistakes, I think we will soon lead the way in preserving what we can.

“The shutting out of alternative ways of knowing and making leads to assumption that the dominant knowledge and techniques are the only option” (SHIVA pg. 57). I agree it was an old way of thinking.  I can’t speak for other countries. Though I think this was true in the past, I think we are now constantly developing new ways of thinking.  I think some people still don’t believe or understand the significance of are treatment of earth. Although for the most part at least in education in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math), there is a push to move to preservation and restoration of resources and the environment in America.  Overall I think we are headed in the right path. It’s been slow, but it feels like efforts are increasing as I get older.

“Human beings are clearly highly ignorant of other members of the Earth Family, and at least in the Western worldview, have thought of themselves as sitting on top of the biodiversity pyramid or tree rather than forming part of a complex web of life” (SHIVA pg. 44).  Is it the Western worldview?  It seems like we at least have a decent water supply, where most countries have destroyed theirs.  Although we rank 26^th out of 146^th for percentage of protected land according to Nation master, it’s a number which is trending up. We rank 3^rd in marine biodiversity, and 26^th in terrestrial biodiversity.  So in the world I think we are probably not the biggest problem.  So I kind of feel like she is pointing fingers without stats.

There are no level to level of greed or accumulation (SHIVA pg. 57).  This is probably true but how can you change that? Farmers don’t farm to feed people, they farm to put money in their pocket. Yes it’s nice to take pride and do great things, but at the end of the day nobody is doing it without money. So how do we change this, when we naturally put people first, and blood before all else? 

http://asud.net/

www.globalchange.umich.edu