Why is conservation science under-funded? I know that this text may be a little older, so funding may not be as bad now. With the effects of climate change seen everywhere, you would think the government would put more efforts and funds into conservation. We need to be responsible for these species and their ecosystems, especially if we're the ones responsible. Luckily it seems that the Biden administration is taking a bigger focus on the environment and climate change than the past administration. I read in an article that the new administration plans to triple the amount of protected land in the U.S., which will be huge for conservation. More changes also seem to be on the way.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/biden-commits-to-30-by-2030-conservation-executive-orders

I feel like the media and organizations are doing a much better job at promoting conservation. Whether through social media, the news, or events, they are all showing to have positive impacts; overall keeping the local people more informed and engaged. Many governments are also taking a step forward to promote conservation.

I'd like to think that the U.S. is doing a great job at addressing environmental issues. Although we may not be doing the most when it comes to actual change, the media and organizations are spreading information in huge quantities. Many people notice these things, which has resulted in protests, whole movements, people changing their lifestyles, and much more. A lot of Western European countries are also doing a great job at addressing these issues. Although this is true, I feel like some countries/provinces aren't doing enough to inform the people. This excludes under-developed countries like many in the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Asia.

It's sad to see how much land we are using for and destroying for our own benefit. Deforestation in particular is lowering biodiversity and destroying whole ecosystems. We've already managed to alter and touch 50% of the worlds lands. This is a huge amount of space when you think about it, especially when all of it was at one point home to many species. Although that doesn't mean all species die when humans touch it, it still has led to extinctions and endangered species.

I found this article to be helpful and eye-opening:

https://earth.org/half-of-earths-land-surface-remains-relatively-untouched-by-humans/

I find it interesting how they classify these species. I was reading an article earlier this week and it stated that under Section 9 of the ESA endangered and threatened species both had the same laws/protections put on them. Recently they've updated it and given threatened species their own. Here is the article: https://www.mankogold.com/publications-Endangered-Species-Act-USFWS-Critical-Habitat.html They also use a lot of the factors that are used to classify the species when assigning them critical habitats.

I saw that this statistic was taken from a source back in 2004, so I was curious to how many species face extinction now. I'm not sure if this statistic means species are threatened with extinction in a few years or if it was predicted for a longer period of time. I looked for statistics for the present day here: https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/biodiversity/elements_of_biodiversity/extinction_crisis

In the article I found that 1 million species are threatened with extinction. Although this is true, it was said that this would happen over the next few decades. If the numbers really shot up that high over 17 years, that's crazy and we need to do something about it. If we don't do something, we may be looking at the next mass extinction.

It would take a lot of time to calculate numbers this big. Is it lazy to do things this way? Would it be worth to take the time to get more accurate numbers, thus giving us better information?

As we log more we're using more and more fossil fuels. I've recently read about biofuels, such as the use of algae as a fuel. If we switched to biofuels we wouldn't slow deforestation, but maybe we would slow the process of climate change, due to all the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.

I never thought that New Zealand only had three native species. Over 30 introduced mammals. How many invasive species really affect New Zealand's environment and other species?

Overpopulation is starting to become a potentially huge issue. As we overpopulate the Earth we become less and less sustainable and we destroy our planet in the process. We may reach 11 billion people by the year 2100 if things don't begin to change soon. Luckily we've been seeing drops in fertility rates over the years, which may help to slow the process. There are also many deep rooted causes, such a lack of education for women and unavailability of contraceptive.

I find this topic very interesting. Here are two links for articles I read recently about overpopulation.

https://info.populationmedia.org/blog/overpopulation-cause-and-effect

https://science.time.com/2011/10/26/the-environment-will-be-the-real-victim-of-overpopulation/

This is really hard to believe. 20% of all grasslands is huge chunk on land. This is a huge problem in Africa and Australia, since they're so species rich and provide a habitat for so many animals. Animals we used to see and read about a lot as kids, such as tigers are now endangered. Although it's important to feed our people via our agriculture, we still need to protect these animals and their habitats. This problem can only get worse and probably will unless we do something soon.

It's pretty crazy to think about how much water that really is. it makes you wonder if we can utilize rain fall for fresh water more than we already ready are. How much of that water is being absorbed by plants and how much of it is being consumed by various organisms?

I feel like this typically makes sense when talking about marine life. When thinking about biodiversity in marine life, we typically think about the Pacific Ocean and the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia. It also make sense that there's species richness when going more north, stopping about half way up China. This is most likely because these species usually like to sit around the equator for heat as well as more food resources.