So let's agree for the moment that yes, an organism, or a species, or an ecosystem, can be worthwhile just because it exists (and please, don't start that whole mosquito thing, okay?). In that case, we need to address the mounting fear that we are approaching a wholesale extinction of species the likes of which hasn't been seen since meteorites slammed into the Yucatan peninsula. What can we as individuals and as societies do about it?
The dinosaurs couldn't affect the approach of the meteorite that signaled their ultimate demise. We, on the other hand, have not only opposable thumbs but the gift of rational thought, and we actually can influence the shape of the future. We can focus our priorities, our energy, and our money on protecting wildlife habitat. Habitat destruction is unquestioned as a primary cause of species endangerment. That tremendous downturn in the songbird population where you live, for example, is most likely due to loss of habitat. Songbirds, like every other living thing, have four very specific needs for survival, needs that are meant to be supplied in their habitat: food, water, shelter, and enough space to raise their young. If they aren't able to satisfy those four basic needs, the species is headed towards endangerment and possibly extinction.
Which is where we come in. For some time now ecologists and conservationists have realized that targeting a specific species isn't as helpful as protecting the whole ecosystem in which that species and many others resides. Habitat protection, ladies and gentlemen, is what the world needs now. And in places where useable habitat has been allowed to degrade or disappear entirely, habitat restoration.
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