1. In 200-250 words, explain what biodiversity is.

Biodiversity is the amount of variation of organisms on the earth.  I live in Bucks County, PA and the types of biodiversity in my area would include deer, birds, bats, and household and farm animals.  Our biodiversity lacks with seawater animals because we do not live near an ocean.  One reason biodiversity is important because anthropocentric reasons, which means us humans use the animals for our own personal needs, like food and medicine.  However, there is another reason called ecocentric, which is just the general happiness of humans to know that animals are safe and the biodiversity is thriving.  Since we live in a world that is more selfish, I feel that more people are worried about biodiversity because of anthropocentric reasons; I think ethically we should consider the ecocentric reasons too but a majority of people are more concerned with their needs.  This relates to the threats of biodiversity, which names the human population as one reason biodiversity is not safe.  There are a lot of other reasons as to why biodiversity is threatened.  The acronym H.I.P.P.O stands for Habitat Loss, Invasive Species, Pollution, Human Population, and Overharvesting, which are the five top threats.  It is important to keep these in mind when we leave trash on the street, or change around animal habitats because we do not want to be even more of a harm.

2. Pick an event from somewhere around the world that affected biodiversity.  Explain it is 200-250 words.

The event I picked was the BP gas leak in the Gulf of Mexico that started on April 20, 2010.  Not only did this pollute the environment, we (the human population) damaged so many animals’ homes.  Almost six years ago, BP’s Deepwater Horizon station blew up which killed 11 people and released more than 200 million gallons of oil in the Gulf.  While workers tried to stop the leak for over three months, over 2 million gallons of toxic dispersants were sprayed in the water, which ended up causing more damage to the biodiversity in the Gulf.  Endangered whales and dolphins were affected by this drastically, and even destroyed the efforts of trying to recover the brown pelican, which are now extinct.  Sharks, fish, turtles, and other marine animals were seen migrating to shallow waters, which disrupted other species because they were considered invasive because they lost their normal habitat.   Even though BP did not purposely release all this oil into the ocean, it is similar to the effects the Amazon Rainforest is suffering because of the loss of space the animals have to roam.  Looking into the aftermath of the BP oil spill, it seems as if environmental companies sued BP so that devastations like this never happen again; legally, we can continue to drill for oil in the ocean.  Morally, we should have more laws in place so we do not destroy biodiversity again.

3. Draw a systems diagram of the causes that lead up to this event

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/public_lands/energy/dirty_energy_development/oil_and_gas/gulf_oil_spill/index.html