It shouldn’t be a surprise to find out that our world is growing. As human population grows, overall consumption dramatically increases and exploitation of the world’s limited resources continues. Now, I’m not trying to say that we need to decrease our numbers…. but what I am saying is that we need to find a new way to live in harmony with other creatures on this planet… because the path we are on now, is one of total destruction. With the world population hitting 7 billion and societies rapidly expanding, more and more species across the world are losing their habitat due to encroaching predators who have little to no concern for their well- being. We place our need before other animals’. I believe that if we continue to do this, we will slowly but surely destroy our world’s biodiversity and environment at large. 10 species of both land and marine animals in the United States alone have become critically endangered due to not only increased human growth but also ignorance and neglect towards rapidly diminishing habitats. Although I am only going to focus on recently endangered species in the U.S. in this post, it should be noted that this problem is one that is world wide, ever reaching, and continually destructive unless something is done to make sure that animal habitats are more and more preserved and protected as human population continues to grow and grow.

Here are the top 3 species in the United States that have become critically threatened due to increases in human population and our general apathy of preserving natural, pre-existing environments and ecosystems.

1)The Florida Panther: Once ranging across the Southeastern parts of the US, the Florida Panther has now been reduced to only about 5% of its original population. The critically endangered species now exists only in a very specific location of South Florida. A large and extremely significant number of Panthers were killed and forced out of their habitats when Florida’s road network was being expanded in 1967 to accommodate for the growing population influx in the region. As of today, there are less than 170 Florida Panthers left. Even then, there have been efforts in the recent years to reintroduce more and more panthers into their natural habitat. As a result, there has been a marginal increase in Florida Panthers in the wild in the past five years.

2)  The San Joaquin Kit Fox: Native to the California Central Valley, this species took a hard hit and saw a huge decline in its numbers during the 1930’s when people began to convert more and more grasslands into urban developments. Additionally, the use of insecticides and rodenticides on the surrounding flora by those hoping to further intensive agricultural activities have contaminated the Kit fox’s source of diet. As a result, the foxes that do exist in the wild are at a greater risk of being poisoned after consuming animals who have died after consuming the now poisonous plants. The Kit Fox was listed as an endangered species in 1967. Since then, an additional 1.5 million people have relocated in the foxes’ habitat, further reducing their natural ecosystem and numbers.

3) Atlantic Bluefin Tuna: Human population expansion has not solely affected land animals. It has continued to have devastating effects on marine life as an increasing amount of waste products are emitted into the already deteriorating ocean. Additionally, over-fishing bodies of water has only increased as the demand for fish has grown with the population of humans who consume them. The Atlantic Bluefin Tuna is one such species that has been particularly horrendously affected by over-fishing. The number of spawning fish of this species has decreased by 80% as over harvesting (especially near the Gulf of Mexico) has exponentially increased since 1970.

Despite the worrying trends of species dying out due to human overpopulation, there are some really amazing organizations like the World Wildlife Fund that are dedicated to preserving and protecting natural habitats and ecosystems for millions of animals in the world. I can only hope that their efforts will continue to grow and be supported.

One of the most fundamental necessities of all life on Earth is water. H₂O, one of the simplest compounds to exist, yet impossible to sustain life without. In our Penn State society, we are fortunate that we are provided with clean and fresh sources of drinking water to consume. But other places around the world, and even in the United States, are not so lucky.

Plastic in the Pacific Ocean

According to scientists, the northern region of the Indian Ocean is one of the most polluted regions of water in the world. A combination of human carelessness and disregard for nature, poverty, as well as natural disasters has created the perfect amalgamation for an environmental disaster. Situated in an area containing some of the world’s highest poverty and population rates, the peripheries of the ocean are victims to immense amounts of litter and human contamination. More than that however are the extremely powerful cyclones that sweep the areas. These gargantuan mixtures of rain and wind are strong enough carry huge amounts of trash miles and miles away from their starting points, and more often than not, they end up in the ocean.

Not surprisingly, the increased presence of objects that are unnatural and not-biodegradable has had a devastating effect on the wildlife that inhibits these waters. In fact, just a few months ago, two marine scientists from Australia found a major “garbage patch” in the waters of the Indian ocean. The garbage patch is plastic and toxic debris floating in mass amounts around in this ocean. The worst part is that the trash isn’t accumulating in a giant clump… it is in fact dispersing further and further out into the ocean. This in turn is severely harming the wildlife that calls the entirety of the Indian Ocean its home. Animals mistake small pieces of plastic for pellets of food and get entangled in plastic debris or discarded fishing nets.

The increasing contamination of water is not a problem that is solely native to the Indian Ocean, however. The Pacific and Atlantic oceans themselves are starting to see more and more landfills of plastics and un-degradable materials build up in their waters. The Center for Biological Diversity announced that fish in the North Pacific ingest 12,000 to 24,000 tons of plastic each year. This can not only cause death in fish but it also results in the transfer of plastic up the food chain into the bodies of larger marine animals. Turtles have been known to mistake plastic for food and have been found to consume exorbitant amounts of plastic bags. Other items that have been found in turtle stomach are soft ropes, styrofoam, and monofilament lines. Large amounts of plastic debris have also been found in habitats of the endangered Hawaiian monk seals including areas where they raise their young. The plastic contamination not only affects marine life, but that of sea birds. 97.5 of all Laysan albatross chicks have been found to contain plastic pieces in their stomachs- Their parents mistakenly feed them plastic instead of food. This only goes to show how disastrous the consequences already are for innocent animal life. This problem needs to stop before it can become irreversible.

Hawaiian Monk Seal pup swimming in plastic contaminated water

Effects of Plastic Ingestion on the Albatross

Hawaiian Monk Seal ensnared in plastic net

The only solution for this horrendous and every growing problem is to stop debris from entering the ocean in such disastrous amounts as well as find a way to start collecting and removing existing debris. Some suggest using the path of natural ocean currents to our advantage and collect debris that wash up on the beach without letting them go back in the ocean. Others view the ongoing contamination as inevitable and thus suggest looking for new types of degradable plastic. The best thing that we can do now however, is use more reusable plastics, stop buying plastic so frequently, and help clean up beaches.

It is up to us to start putting an end to this problem. The animals are helpless and will continue to suffer unless we do something.