Habitat Destruction

Habitat Destruction and How You Can Help

Habitat destruction is when habitats get destroyed and become no longer suitable for animals to live and survive in. In other words, it is when habitats get so damaged they become uninhabitable. This can happen from pollution, deforestation, degradation, etc. This needs to be addressed because about 160,000 square kilometers of forests are destroyed each year. One of the consequences of habitat destruction, is that plants and animals get affected by habitat destruction, and it can kill out certain species. Habitat destruction from humans is the primary cause of risk for 83% of endangered plant species. A dangerous part of this is that without some of these plants, we are getting more air pollution, and without some of these animals we are messing up the whole ecosystem just by removing a species. The proposed solution is to “only use what is needed. Don’t waste paper or other things made from the environment, use only what you need and not more. You can do this by using reusable items and only resources that you need.” This means that you don’t need to use waste, if you have a reusable item that you can use instead. Also, you should cut down on how much waste you use, you don’t need to completely get rid of waste, but you can try to use less.

The plan was successful, because it reduced the original waste by about 42% over the course of the second week. The first week where it was just the regular amount of waste, produced 80 pieces of trash over the week. The second week where it reduced waste, there were only 34 pieces of waste. This is a large amount reduced, and if everyone in the world reduced their waste by this much, there would probably be some change very quickly. There weren’t too many errors during the data collection, however the first week may have produced significantly more waste partially because I had a cold in the beginning of the first week, so I used more tissues that week then the other week. To get more accurate results next time, I will make sure that both weeks have the same conditions.

The data accurately measures how effective the solution was, because it clearly shows a significant difference between the two weeks. It also clearly shows how much waste can be reduced by the world’s trash population and how simple it is to make a impact on the environment and help reduce pollution in the world. Reducing waste can create long term effects on the forests and habitats as well as cleaning up our environment to make it a safer place for animals, plants, and humans, to live in. My solution could be improved, because instead of just reducing waste, I could have just completely got rid of certain pieces of waste that are more harmful and can be reduced easier. For example, instead of just reducing the amount of plastic bags I use, I could completely get rid of the plastic bags and replace them with reusable containers. This may not be a big difference, but even the smallest differences can create the biggest results when used globally.

My solution can impact the environment in many ways. Reducing waste can help reduce many environmental issues as well. Reducing waste reduces habitat destruction, and by reducing habitat destruction we can lower the speed of global warming, by lowering this, both sea level rise and coral bleaching will be reduced. The solution also lowers the amount of pollution which would lower polluted runoff and habitat destruction. Reducing all of these environmental issue would have a huge, lasting impact of the environment, as well as improving our lives. Without these issues the earth will be cleaner, forests will be bigger, and the air will be fresher. Overall, even reducing your waste by a small amount could help reduce all of these problems, even without you knowing. These are some of the main environmental impacts of my solution.