Who Will Protect the Web of Life?

What Does the Future Hold?

MAN is only part of the big picture.  All creatures on earth have their place, according to their God-given role. We share many things with the life-forms around us-above all, the miracle of life itself.  For this reason, many people cannot help  but feel a powerful sense of loss when a life-form vanishes. 

Scientist Anthony C. Janetos, writing in Consequences magazine, stated:  "Many would agree that as a  society we bear the ethical obligation to protect the habitability of the planet, and to act as responsible stewards of its biological riches for the present and future welfare of the human species. To do that requires an appreciation of the value of biodiversity-both what it provides for the natural world and the ways we can use it-and a commitment to preserve it." 

What Is Being Done?

Indeed, global concern over the loss of living resources has brought representatives to draft a Convention on Biological Diversity. This comprehensive agreement recognizes that the conservation of biodiversity is a common concern of all people. 

As a further step to understanding biodiversity, biologists, ecologists, and other scientists around the world have declared 2001-2 to be Intentional Biodiversity Observation Year (IBOY).  Diana Wall, a biologist at Colorado State University who chairs the IBOY, states:  "Exploring biodiversity will unlock many benefits through discovery of new genes and chemicals that can be used for drugs, to improve crops or to restore polluted land."  Wall adds:  "More importantly , learning where new species are, their role in maintaining  healthy ecosystems and how we can conserve  them is vital for making informed decisions about our land, rivers, and oceans." 

Next time: Who Will Protect the Web of Life? -What Does the Future Hold/Fundamental Changes Needed 

From the Awake! magazine 

Who Will Protect the Web of Life?/The Intricate Web of Life

Do We Need All These Species?

Is there a reason to be concerned about the loss of life's diversity? Do we really need such a variety of species?  Many respected experts insist that the answer is yes. Earth's endowment  of species provides humans with food, useful chemicals, and many other products and services. Think, too, about the potential benefits that undiscovered species may hold for mankind.   For example, it has been estimated that 120 of the top 150 prescription drugs used in the United States come from natural compounds.  Thus, in losing the flora of the world, mankind also loses the opportunity to find new drugs and chemicals.  "Every time we lose a species, we lost an option for the future," says Sir Ghillean Prance, a director of Kew Gardens in London.   "We lost a potential cure for AIDS or a virus-resistant crop. So we must somehow stop losing species, not just for the sake of our planet but for our own . . .needs and uses." 

We also need natural ecosystems to provide essential services on which all living things depend.  The production of oxygen, the purification of water, the filtering of pollutants, and the prevention of soil erosion are all vital functions performed by healthy ecosystems.  

Insects provide pollination services. Frogs, fish, and birds controls pests; mussels and other aquatic organisms cleanse our water supplies; plants and microorganisms create our soils. The economic value of all these services is immense.  A conservative estimate of the monetary benefits of biodiversity worldwide is around 3,000 billion dollars per year, at 1995 prices.

Despite our dependence on the diversity of life, however, the world seems to be in the midst of an  extinction crisis that has threatened the intricate web of life. Now at a time when we are beginning to understand the vital role of biodiversity, humans are causing more extinctions than ever before! Is man, though, in a position to solve the problem!  What does the future hold for the variety of life on earth?  

Next time: Who Will Protect the Web of Life?/What Does the Future Hold?

From the Awake! magazine 

Who Will Protect the Web of Life? /The Intricate Web of Life

An Epidemic of Extinctions

How fast are species being lost? Answers to that question are very inexact. Most of what is being lost is still a mystery to scientists. First they have to establish how many species exist. According to John Harte, ecological scientists at the University of California, Berkeley,  "there are about one and a half million named species on earth, but we know that many unnamed  species exist, and the total number is probably  between 5 and 15 million."  Some raised the estimate to 50 million species or more. Determining the exact number is all but impossible because "most extinctions will occur before the species have even been named and described," according to scientist Anthony C. Janetos. 

Modern science has barely begun to decipher the intricate ecological mechanisms that keep natural communities running smoothly. If humans do not know how many species there are, how can they understand the complex web of life and how it is affected by extinctions?  How can they tell what the species' disappearance might mean for the planet's life-support system? 

When scientists try to determine the rate of extinction, their estimates, although varied, often disheartening.   "Some 50 percent of  the world's  flora and fauna could be on a path to extinction within a hundred years, " states one writer. Harte's prognosis is even more grim:  "Biologists estimate that tropical deforestation will result in the loss of half or more of the existing species on earth during the next 75 years."

Based on the calculations of scientist Stuart Pimm of the University of Tennessee, National Geographic states that "11 percent of birds, or 1,100 species out of the world's near 10,000, are on the edge of extinction; it's doubtful that the majority  of these 1,100 will live much beyond the end of the [21st century]." The same magazine stated:  "A team of respected botanists recently reported that one in eight plants is at risk of becoming extinct.  'It's not just species on islands or in rain forests, or just birds, or big charismatic mammals,' says Pimm.  'It's everything and it's everywhere. . . .It is a worldwide epidemic of extinctions.' " 

Next time: Who Will Protect the Web of Life/ The Intricate Web of Life -Do We Need All These Species?

From the Awake! magazine 

Who Will Protect the Web of Life?/The Intricate Web of Life

Conclusion of Vanishing Variety

* Overexploitation. This has led several species to extinction. A classic case is that of a passenger pigeon.  In the early 19th century, it was the most abundant bird in North America. When it migrated-in flocks of a billion or more-it darkened the skies for days at a time. However, by the end of the 19th century, it had been hunted to the brink of extinction, and in September of 1914, in  a Cincinnati zoo, the last remaining passenger pigeon died.  Similarly, the American bison, or buffalo, of the Great Plains was nearly hunted  out of existence.  

* Human population growth.  The human family in the mid-19th century had  a population of one billion. One and a half centuries and five billion people later, humans are beginning to wonder whether they are in danger of exceeding the limits of their resources. Each year, as the human population continues to grow, species are becoming extinct at an alarming rate.

* Threat of global warming.  According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it is possible  that temperatures could rise by as much as 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit within this century. This may be too fast a jump for some species to survive. According to researchers, it appears that a contributing cause of the death of coral reefs  (anchors of much of marine biodiversity) is warming water. 

Scientists say that a three-foot rise in sea levels could eliminate a large portion of the world's coastal wetlands, the home of abundant biodiversity.  It is believed   by some that global warming may be affecting the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. If these were to melt, environmental catastrophe could follow. 

Next time: Who Will Protect the Web of Life?/The Intricate Web of Life - An Epidemic of Extinctions

From the Awake! magazine 

Who Will Protect the Web of Life?/The Intricate Web of Life

Vanishing Variety

Sadly, despite the beauty and variety of life-forms, a number of researchers say that man is pushing species to extinction at an alarming rate. In what ways? 

* Habitat destruction.  This ranks as the leading cause of extinction. It includes a logging, mining, clearing trees for cattle, and building dams and highways where wilderness  once existed. As ecosystems shrink, species lose the resources they need to survive. Natural environments are fragmented, degraded and eliminated. Migration routes are disrupted.  Genetic diversity diminishes. Local populations of living things can not rebound from disease and other stresses. Hence, one by one, species gradually die out. 

The extinction of certain species can even trigger a chain reaction of extinctions, for when one part of the web of life is eliminated, others can be affected. Extinction of keystone species-such as pollinators-can affect a myriad of other species.

*Introduced species. When humans introduce a foreign species into an ecosystem, that species may take over niches that other species have occupied.  The foreign species might also indirectly change the ecosystem enough to force out native species, or it might bring with it diseases to which the natives have no immunity. Especially on islands, where species have long existed in isolation and have not dealt with newcomers, the original inhabitants may be unable to adapt and survive.  

A typical example is a "killer" alga, Caulerpa texifolia, which is destroying other marine species in the Mediterranean Sea.  Introduced accidentally off the coast of Monaco, it has now begun to spread on the seabed. It is toxic, and it has no known predators. "We could be seeing the beginning of an ecological catastrophe,"  says Alexandre Meinesz, professor of marine biology at the University of Nice, France.  

Next time: Who Will Protect the Web of Life?/The Intricate Web of Life - Conclusion of Vanishing Variety 

From the Awake!  magazine 

Who Will Protect the Web of Life?

The Intricate Web of Life

LIFE on earth is abundant and immensely diverse.  The term "biological diversity," or "biodiversity" for short, designates all the world's species, ranging from the smallest bacteria to the giant sequoias; from earthworms to eagles.

All this life on earth is part of one great interdependent web that also includes non-living elements. Life depends on non-living components such as earth's atmosphere, oceans, fresh water, rocks, and soils.  This community of life is called  the biosphere and humans are an integral part of it. 

Biodiversity embraces all the bacteria and other microbes. Many of these are known to perform vital chemical functions that keep ecosystems operating. Biodiversity, or the web of life, also includes the green plants that produce oxygen through photosynthesis, trapping solar energy and storing it in the form of sugars, which are the base of energy resources for most other forms of life.

Next time: Who Will Protect the Web of Life?/The Intricate Web of Life - Vanishing Variety

From the Awake! magazine 

Who Will Protect the Web of Life?/Man Against Nature

"Today it is humans who should accept responsibility for the increasing rates of species extinction." -JANE GOODALL, CONSERVATIONIST. 

LIFE on earth is dynamic and interrelated. We humans are an intrinsic part of it.  We depend on the living world for our food and medicines, the oxygen we breathe, the elements that form our bodies. In the course of a normal day, earth's human population utilizes more than 40,000 other living species. All of earth's  species together weave a complex, astonishing and intricate web of life. 

However, many experts who study this complex web feel that it is under attack!  Perhaps you have heard about endangered rhino, tigers, pandas, and whales.  Some scientists claim that 50 percent of all plant and animal species could vanish from the earth in 75 years. Researchers fear that some species may disappear 10,000 times faster than what scientists call natural extinction rates.  One expert estimates that species are dying at the average rate of every 10 to 20 minutes.

Scientists believe that in the distant past, species extinction was mostly triggered by natural causes.  But the principal cause of the present crisis is different, they say. Evidently, today's extinctions are caused by human activity. One scientist referred to humans as the "exterminator species." 

Are human activities really causing this dramatic loss of biological diversity?  If so, how?  Can we survive without the kaleidoscope of life on earth?  Is anything being done to stem the tide of what many feel is an extinction crisis in the living world? 

Note: Yes, In a lot of places, there are poachers who kill animals for money and trophies. They are also cutting down the forests  which are these animals homes and food supplies, also due to greed.  It is the humans who are at fault. How would you like your homes and your food taken away from you?  This deforestation and killing animals for money, trophies and yes for exotic food enthusiasts. This is not fair to these animals,  forces them to go into the civilized areas of town to get food, which also causes them to get killed.   It is not fair to these animals that people are so cruel. And it is all most due to greed. This is cruelty at its worse, in my opinion.   So, if you go on hikes in certain areas where wild animals have been seen,  and you see a wild animal, he/she is only doing what comes natural them and should not be blamed, because you are in their territory.  

Next time: Who Will Protect the Intricate Web of Life -The Intricate Web of Life

From the Awake! magazine 

John Foxe AND HIS TURBULENT TIMES

Foxe Completes His Work

Back in England, Foxe embarked on an enlarged edition of his account, details of which may have been witnessed in person by some of his readers.  His first English edition-with some 1,800 pages and a number of woodcut illustrations-appeared in 1563 and became an immediate best seller.

The second edition  followed seven years later. Its two volumes had over 2,300 pages and 153 illustrations.   The following year, the Church of England decreed that a copy of Foxe's book be installed alongside the Bible in all English cathedrals and in the homes of church dignitaries for the benefit of servants and visitors. Parish churches soon followed this example.  Even the illiterate could benefit, thanks to the illustrations, which may a deep and lasting impression. 

By this time, Foxe had joined the Puritans, Protestants who felt that mere separation from the church of Rome was not enough. They taught that every vestige  of Catholicism had to be removed-a stance that, ironically brought them into conflict with the Protestant Church in England, which retained many Catholic customs and doctrines.  

Because his work exposed many  of the religious atrocities that took place in  his turbulent times, John Foxe shaped the way people viewed religion and  politics in England for centuries to come. 

Next time: Who Will Protect the Web of Life? -Man Against Nature

From the Awake! magazine 

John Foxe AND HIS TURBULENT TIMES

The Deadly Fruits of Intolerance 

The Reformation in Europe saw thousands of men, women, and children slaughtered. In England, in 1553, an ardent Catholic who came to be known as Bloody Mary was crowned. Since the English Parliament had severed all connections with Rome in 1534, she was determined to bring England back under papal authority. During Mary's five-year reign, some 300 men and women, including Protestant church leaders, were burned as heretics.  Many others died in prison.

Foxe survived this era because he took his family  to Basel, Switzerland, soon after Mary's enthronement. In 1559, one year after Mary's Protestant sister Elizabeth was crowned queen, he returned to England, along with other exiles.  That same year,  Elizabeth reinstated the Act of Supremacy which made her the Supreme Governor of the Church.  In response, Pope Pius V excommunicated Elizabeth in 1570.   Soon, international conspiracies against England were uncovered, including schemes to assassinate the Protestant queen.  As a result, hundreds of Catholics were charged with treason and killed on Elizabeth's orders. 

How far the churches of Christendom -Catholic and Protestant-had strayed from the teachings of Jesus Christ!   "Continue to love your enemies and to pray for those persecuting you," he taught. (Matthew 5:44)   Because both Catholics and Protestants disregarded this very clear directive, the brought much reproach on Christianity-a development foretold in the Bible.   "The way of the truth will be spoken of abusively" on account of pretenders to Christianity, wrote the apostle Peter. -2 Peter 2:1, 2. 

Next time: John Foxe AND HIS TURBULENT TIMES - Foxe Completes His Work

From the Awake! magazine 

John Foxe AND HIS TURBULENT TIMES

Conclusion of Turbulent Years

A citizen of nearby Coventry, Agnes told Foxe about a widow named Smith (or Smythe) who had taught her children the Ten Commandments and Jesus' model prayer, often called the Lord's Prayer.  Instead of teaching her children in Latin, though, she taught them in English. For this "crime" she was burned at the stake, along with six men who were similarly charged.  Because this gross injustice angered the people, the local bishop spread the word that the victims were burned for the "greater crime" of eating meat on Fridays and other fast days.

How had the martyrs become familiar with portions of the Bible in English?  Some 150 years earlier, despite church opposition, the Bible had been translated from Latin to English by John Wycliffe, who also trained itinerant preachers known as Lollards.  These carried handwritten portions of the Scripture, which they read to the people. As a result, Parliament tried to stop that activity. In 1401, It passed a statute giving bishops the power to imprison and torture heretic and burn them at the stake. 

Fearing arrest, Foxe moved with his family to London, where he later took a stand for the Protestant cause. There he translated tracts from German Reformers into English and translated other tracts written in Latin  as well. He also wrote some tracts of his own.

Additionally, Foxe began to compile a history of the Lollards in England, completing it in 1554.  The work was published in Strasbourg, today a city in France, as a  small Latin volume of 212 leaves. In effect, this was the first of his Acts and Monuments of the Church.  Fiver years later, enlarged the volume to over 750 folio pages. 

Next time: John Foxe AND HIS TURBULENT TIMES -The Deadly Fruits of Intolerance

From the Awake! magazine