By Deacon Tom Cervone, Ph.D.; Sister Maureen Houlihan, D.C.; and Nicole Cervone-Gish, Ed. M.S.
Our Mother Earth
Editor’s note: This series takes a deeper look at Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical On the Care for Our Common Home, “Laudato Si.’”
Did you know many animals and plants are becoming extinct in the world, due to overpopulation, overcrowding, and overconsumption? All species on Earth are gifts from God, and biodiversity holds a treasure of genes that can offer many possibilities, especially since “humans are more at risk from diseases as biodiversity disappears” (John Platt, 12/7/10, Scientific American). So, we urge you to take to heart Pope Francis’ wisdom in his Chapter 1: Loss of Biodiversity.
Biodiversity is so important! Ecologically, it refers to all life found on Earth, and how it interacts in a balanced way in different ecosystems. Rich biodiversity provides us with clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, healthy soils, pollination in plants, pest control, wastewater treatment and much more. Just like our bodies need to be balanced―so too―do our ecosystems.
However, biodiversity is affected by chemicals, deforestation, and isolating populations caused by development, infrastructure, and even noise and light pollution. Examples of high biodiverse areas are uncut forests, wetlands, prairies, mangrove swamps and rainforests. We need these places to flourish and grow, but this can only happen if we all get involved. We simply need ecosystems to be diverse and flourish throughout the world!
The bald eagle first gained federal protection in 1940. It was on the federally endangered species list because of the insecticide DDT. This chemical got into the food chain by killing insects; fish ate these tainted insects; and eagles ate these contaminated fish. As a result, bio-accumulated levels of DDT in eagles caused them to produce eggs with very thin shells that broke during incubation, thus decreasing the number of offspring and their overall population. With DDT banned in 1972, the number of bald eagles rebounded enough to be removed from the federally endangered species list. Peregrine falcons and ospreys followed a similar story.
Biodiversity can also be affected by forest fragmentation or the splitting of large, connected forests into smaller forests. Fragmentation affects forest interior birds, like many federal and state listed warblers. Increasing edge habitat reduces the interior forest habitat. Introducing new species into a new environment is harmful and can cause an invasive species, like the mosquitofish introduced for mosquito control, to outcompete a native species like the blackstripe topminnow. Sutton, Zeiber and Fisher (Journal of Freshwater Ecology, January 2012, 28(1):1-16) found the mosquitofish more aggressive, thus displacing blackstripe topminnows.
We also have many invasive plants like kudzu, Japanese knotweed, English ivy, winter creeper, bush honeysuckle, Autumn olive, Bradford pear, purple loosestrife and oriental bittersweet that outcompete native species. What about the emerald ash borer and its effect on our forests; and before that, the gypsy moth; and since 2006, the millions of bats (a beneficial species to humankind) that have died from the white-nose syndrome (Pseudogymnoascus destructans)?
Our oceans need protection too, especially the coral reefs, since “more than 90 percent of the warming that happened on Earth from 1971-2010 occurred in the ocean” (LuAnn Dahlman and Rebecca Lindsey, 8/17/20, Climate Change: Ocean Heat Content/NOAA Climate.gov). Many coral reefs, which show high biodiversity, have been lost or degraded from water pollution, thermal pollution, sedimentation and destructive fishing practices.
Caring for our Mother Earth requires far-sighted planning efforts. If habitats are affected, mitigation (replacement) should be required, and let’s not forget, human communities are responsible for protecting high biodiverse areas such as the Amazon and Congo basins, and the great aquifers and glaciers. Pope Francis specifically calls these areas, the “lungs” of the planet.
What can you do?
Please consider the following:
- Visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Puv0Pss33M
- Visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Ua_zWDH6U
- Plant trees, flowerbeds, gardens, and landscape with food species (foodscaping).
- Stabilize river banks following approved guidelines, and implement two-stage ditches.
- Fund protection of high biodiverse areas in the world, including others planting and preserving trees.
- Emphasize healthy soils with roots in the ground all year (no-till farming), which absorb (sequester) carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the soil, reducing global warming.
Let’s protect our native plants and animals!