Wildlife Goes Extinct on Our Planet

Earth has had multiple mass extinctions. It will keep happening as a natural evolutionary cycle or perhaps because of the activities of man. The Endangered Species Act was set up in 1973 to save us from ourselves because, since the beginning of the 21st century, we have lost 17 animal species. For example, the Pinta Island Tortoise on June 24, 2012, whose ultimate survivor named Lonesome George, died at over 100-years-old. If we do not curb greenhouse gas emissions, we will cause more extinction.

Since we do not want to wipe out animal populations, the only answer to protecting them is to try to clone them. The Mexican grizzly used to live in Mexico but was hunted down because it would kill rancher’s livestock. Sometimes human ignorance is to blame for genuine extinctions of specific types of animal species. This should scare those of us who care about the environment into doing something about it. Sometimes old creatures survive such as in the case of the Yangtze River Dolphin, where these animals have been seen alive but no new ones are going to be born unless we clone them and mix them with bottlenose dolphins for example.

Despite human’s track record for decimating 83 percent of animal species on our planet, it would seem that new species are constantly being discovered, at the rate of 18,000 new species per year. One such species was found in a San Diego aquarium called Ancoracysta Twista, or an organism with cells made of genetic material that is contained in a nucleus bound by membranes. Single-celled protists are also eukaryotes while prokaryotes do not have a self-contained nucleus. Other species have been found in the Antarctic Ocean, named Epimeria quasimodo after the Hunchback, which is found inside the frigid arctic waters influenced by glaciers.

We need to quit hunting the species that may or may not go extinct while preserving those that have been found. For example, in Australia biologists have discovered a new species of bandy-bandy snake that is venomous on the west coast of the Cape York Peninsula. This new snake may be in danger from human activity such as mining in the region. Bandy-bandies are snakes that burrow in the ground. The researchers found it on a concrete block by the sea. This species of snake is not related to snakes on the Australian East coast.

This type of snake is found in its natural habitat in the town of Weipa, which specializes in Bauxite mining. Bauxite is the chief commercial ore of aluminum. The thing is new insects and reptiles are always discovered somewhere despite losses to our biodiversity every day, snakes aside. Losing our biodiversity does harm to nature itself though. This is because we humans like to destroy our environment if we happen to be Republican, claiming that global warming is not real as the environment is supposedly fine. Quit thinking this way, elected representatives. The sea levels will rise, changing the map of the world drastically. The more we do not tackle environmental problems, the worse they become.

This is not behavior statesmen should show. Come the election this year, 2018, please vote out the stale people in Congress and vote in people who bother to think about what to do. Ignoring environmental problems will not go away. Putting our heads in the sand will not make our problems go away either. We have to start facing all our problems on this planet as a species, not as enemies. There are plenty of problems to fix. Lets’ get started.

Works Cited

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/new-species-of-poisonous-snake-australia-2018-7

https://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/17-animals-that-became-extinct-in-our-lifetime?utm_term=.cqMKlYVz6#.udMNp3qeG

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bridaineparnell/2018/05/23/top-10-brand-new-species-2018-including-one-that-was-found-in-an-aquarium/#2d77e7fb5ccc

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/animals-that-have-become-extinct-in-the-21st-century-so-far.html