Biology 111a: Biology in Society: Sustaining the Variety of Life

Matthew Banks

Biology 111a

December 5, 2012

Biology in Society: Sustaining the Variety of Life

1         The Millennium Ecosystems Assessment would have a very hard time trying to economically quantify people’s aesthetic and spiritual beliefs. Ever culture values something differently or more importantly than other cultures. The aesthetic and spiritual benefits would be different between countries; it might even be different from town to town. The Millennium Ecosystems Assessment would have make sure that everyone aesthetic and spiritual be valued equality across the board no countries or villages should get more or less money just because of their aesthetic and spiritual beliefs.          

2         The local levels of government should have a decent amount of power since they will be affecting the endangered species first hand they already have the experience of living with the endanger species without disrupting them. The national level of government should have more power than the local government but less power than the international government. The national government should also be in charge of making sure the local government is using the money the right way. The international government should have the most power because the Millennium Ecosystems Assessment is an international program. The international government should be able set the amount of funding that each country would need to save their endangered species. The power system would be something like the United Nations, the local and national government would survey their country and see what needed to be done to save their endangered species; from there they would send a representative to the Millennium Ecosystems Assessment group or the M.E.A would send a representative to their country. Yes the international body should have the ability to go against the national government wishes if it is for the good of the world’s people. This could be archived by having all of the countries involved in Millennium Ecosystems Assessment take a vote about what should happen.

3        It is very important to protect every and any species from extinction because they can befit humans in many ways that we are unaware of. The first examples the presentation that you gave on zebra mussels you mention the story of the sea urchins and sea otters. The people in the town thought that the low amount of fish they were catching was because the sea otters were eating all of the fish. They people there began to hunt to the point of extinction in that particular town. After they rid of all the sea otters the fish population started to decrease even faster because the sea urchin population no longer had any natural predators so they were free to breed without any problems. The second example I have is of a village that had a problem with birds eating their crops and being all over the place. So the town’s people decide to kill all the birds in the village. Everything was fine at first then there was a large increase in the town’s spider population, which is way worse than having a bird problem.   We should save every species because even the smallest insect or animal can have the biggest effect on lives even if we think we are doing the right thing by killing it we should not because you never know how that species is helping us.