conservation is necessary to human survival.

[mattw]

"Use of insecticides should be strictly limited[....] Insecticides are very dangerous and will usually kill beneficial insects along with the target -- this "collateral damage" can come back to haunt you, since a lack of natural predators will allow even larger populations of pests to return to your area." Quote from ShopWiki.com

This demonstrates the principle of biodiversity being essential to crop production. How can you prove to people that complex ecosystems are required for human survival? That "environmental services" are necessary for human survival, and that environmental services depend on continued biodiversity over great areas of the Earth?

Insecticides also kill bees, and according to Albert Einstein, "If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live."
How else can you make the argument that conservation is crucial to human well being --even human survival?

[david23]

You need to do better than just quoting that to make a convincing argument

[jwalin]

lol...
i dont know how einstien cam up with that one... but... yes ecological is neccessary... maybe not necessary for survival, technology can bring us many things, breathing aids... food pills... but our lives wouldnt then be so exciting...

[Hobble]

Well, if regulations are not tightened around international fishing, our oceans could eventually run out of fish, which would completely destroy its ecosystem...

[Gabrielwer]

Insecticides can kill not only bees, they may be a cause of pollinator decline, the loss of bees that pollinate plants, and colony collapse disorder (CCD), in which worker bees from a beehive or Western honey bee colony abruptly disappear. Loss of pollinators will mean a reduction in crop yields.Sublethal doses of insecticides (i.e. imidacloprid and other neonicotinoids) affect foraging behavior of bees. However, research into the causes of CCD was inconclusive as of June 2007

[mattw]

Thanks for that review.
Last night at work we carefully took a wolf spider out of the building and let it go. I like spiders because they are essential to insect control, and ecological balance. I think we need all the pieces of the ecological puzzle, but I can't put my finger on why. I can't prove it.

[JackBean]

1) it was shown, I think by British scientists, that the bees are not that strictly required and their function overtook other insect
2) there are plenty of examples, which can show us, that all parts of the ecosystem are important for balance. However, who are we to say, that this and not other balance is the right one?