 |
| Pic Credit: https://primalsurvivalpodcast.com |
Conflict between human and wildlife results in the negative interactions between them. It results in negative consequences for both. For humans, it affects their resources whereas for wildlife, it affects their habitat. This is a kind of a competition for natural resources between human and wildlife. Because of the growth in human population and their requirement of land and natural resources, the number of such conflicts has been increasing in recent decades. Such conflicts have resulted in extinction of so many species and may result in many more.
The Earth has seen 5 mass extinctions till date. One of such mass extinction was so big that it wiped out more than 75% of all species on Earth. And the next one might have already started because based on research done by biologists and environmentalist, by the end of this century, 1/6th species on Earth could go extinct.
So, what is the solution? How to make sure that humans and wildlife do not interfere in each other's territory? Can we divide the earth in two parts, one for humans and other for wildlife? Let's see what would happen if we do so.
The "Half-Earth idea" term was first used by known naturalist and biologist E.O. Wilson who also has won Pulitzer Prize as author of his book "On Human Nature." He used the term "Half-Earth idea" to propose that half of the Earth's surface should be human-free zone in order to preserve biodiversity and let the nature to stabilize itself.
If this happens then there will be a lot of chaos because currently human population is estimated to have exceeded 7.9 billion mark and there is no way this much population can settle with half of the space it currently has.
One of the major problems will be that the billions of people will have to be displaced in order to achieve this goal and it is going to affect most of the world as these displaced people will take refuge in different countries and we are already aware of that when a refugee situation arises it is not going to end well for anyone.
However, settling people in other countries is not the only problem that human race would face. We would have a lot of problems such as shortage of food and fresh water. Currently, we use almost 33% of the land and 75% of fresh water for farming and still not able to feed every human being on earth. As per global hunger index, at least 10% of Earth’s population doesn’t have enough food in current scenarios. Just imagine what would happen when we have less land and water for farming.
And if we don't have enough land and resources for farming, this will affect a number of industries which are reliant on farming. So, this will result in our next problem that is unemployment. If there will be less industries, there will be less jobs and it will further degrade the situation.
So, this will result in mass extinction what we were trying to prevent when we adopted the "Half-Earth idea." In other words we do not need to take extreme steps such as "Half-Earth idea" but we all could co-exist. The reason behind survival of human race is the biodiversity. We co-existed with all the species on earth because we all rely on each other to make life on Earth possible.
So as a human we need to take major steps to minimize interfering in wildlife habitats and completely stopping such act just for profiteering. If we don't take steps now, then we might be next in line to face extinction level events. Because biodiversity is one thing that helped humans to survive this long.
So, the conclusion is that we can't continue living the way we currently live as it is accelerating the extinction of other species. As humans we need other species as much as they need us.
And by the way the "Half-Earth idea" might be extreme and actually impossible to implement.
Thank You!