Making Our Communities Sustainable
27
Respecting the web of life
The natural world is made up of a great variety of living things. The scientific
word for the great number of different kinds of people, plants, animals, and
insects that live on Earth is biodiversity. Long before scientists gave this name
to the variety of living things, many people taught their children about the web
of life. Just as a spider’s web is made strong by the many threads connecting it,
biodiversity depends on the web of life connecting all living things.
For example, people gather fruits to eat, which have nutrients that keep
them healthy. These fruits grow on trees and bushes pollinated by insects.
Without pollination, the fruit will not grow. Birds eat the insects, and the
birds are hunted by foxes. A balance in the web of life means that there are
just enough flowers, insects, birds, and foxes for all to live in the area. If you
kill too many foxes, maybe because they are killing your
chickens, then perhaps the number of birds will grow
and they will eat too many of the insects.
In this way, killing too many foxes can
mean you have less fruit as well.
An important part of protecting human health, now and
in the future, is protecting the web of life.
Unfortunately, the world is facing a great loss of biodiversity, with many
plants and animals disappearing every year. Biodiversity is valuable in itself,
but it is also valuable in the many ways this web of life protects human health.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012