How Biodiversity Depletion Is Threatening Human Health

Biodiversity is an umbrella term covering all living organisms on Earth. Each one of the living being plays an important role in providing the basic necessities to continue life, including food, water and clear air. However, human activities are causing extreme biodiversity loss around the world, with serious consequences for human health. It affects mental health, as well as, causes a shortage of natural resources used to make medicines.

Here are some key points on how biodiversity loss can affect human health:

1. Mental Health: Biodiversity loss can have a significant impact on human mental health. Exposure to natural environments has proved to reduce stress and provide calmness. The loss of a greener and healthier environment can lead to increased stress, anxiety or depression.
2. Loss of Medicines: When biodiversity is damaged, it can also mean that natural resources like herbal remedies become limited. People from different cultures use natural products and traditional medicines for treating and preventing diseases. But as species disappear, so do the chances of finding new medicines from nature, making it harder to treat new diseases.
3. Extinction of Species: Species like bees and butterflies play an important role in keeping the environment healthy by pollination, controlling pests, and purifying water. However, if these species go extinct, we lose these benefits, leading to a much drier and warm environment sans plants. Moreover, destroying natural habitats forces wildlife to come in close contact with people, which can lead to life danger and the spread of diseases.
4. Natural Disasters: Biodiversity helps to control ecosystems and lessen the damage caused by natural disasters. When biodiversity is lost, ecosystems become more vulnerable to natural disasters such as floods, landslides, and earthquakes. These disasters can then have a big effect on the health of people.
5. Human-Driven Extinction: Humans like cutting trees, catching fish and polluting are the main reasons why some species are on the verge of extinction. This can be bad for people’s health because it can cause important things in nature that maintain the biodiversity cycle to disappear and cause disturbances in ecology.

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