Introduction
From a human point of view, a habitat is the environment where you live, go to school,
places where you go to have fun, and other places you regularly visit. Maybe if we think
of habitat in this way we will have a better sense of other species’ habitats and a better
appreciation for how valuable a habitat is to its occupants.
When we likewise consider habitat destruction, we might evaluate more carefully human
influences such as land clearing (Figure25.25) and introduction of non-native species of
plantsandanimalsandhowthiscanhaveevencatastrophiceffects, likeextinctionofspecies
(Figure25.26), some of which give us great beauty and some of which have medicinal or
other useful qualities! In human terms, how would we feel if someone came in and radically
changed our habitat, and either drove us out or worse yet, caused us to eventually die?
Figure 25.25: Slash-and-burn agriculture, shown here in southern Mexico, clears land for
agriculture. ( 23 )
In this lesson, we will also examine other causes of extinction besides habitat destruction
and the importance of biodiversity. Finally, we will see, that as our planet becomes more
threatened and as we see how this also impacts the human species, human awareness of
these issues has led to measures, such as habitat protection, that can help all of the earth’s
inhabitants.