Human Activities Adversely Threaten Wildlife?

¶ … human activities adversely threaten wildlife?

Impact of human beings on wildlife: The negative impact of the human animal on other animal species

All species impact one another in positive and negative ways -- overpopulation of one species, after all, can result in the depletion of another species, in the absence of predators that eat the dominant creature. However, the human species has proven particularly wily in manipulating its environment and protecting itself from normal population-reduction pressures. For example, humans can use their larger and more sophisticated brains to find ways to build highly technologically efficient homes. Humans can guard themselves within secure walls, can create medicine to combat natural diseases, and they can raise livestock and vegetation to enable their species to seldom or never suffer the ravages of famine. Water is purified and even humans born with certain natural disadvantages can be sustained with medical and technological support.

However, the human drive to seek food and shelter has not proven equally salutary to the world's wildlife. Global warming has rendered the earth less hospitable to animals such as the polar bear, which is dependant upon cold temperatures to survive. Pollution has also affected the ecosystem of aquatic life. According to CNN: "Freshwater species in both temperate and tropical regions fell by 29% between 1970 and 2003…despite covering only about 1% of the total land surface of the planet, inland waters are home to more than 40,000 vertebrate species. In tropical regions, freshwater species were especially hard-hit; the index shows they suffered a 35-percent drop between 1970 and 2000." Terrestrial species are affected by over-farming and deforestation: the change has been swift and alarming: The world's wildlife declined by 27% since 1970 overall (Humans blamed, 2008, CNN).