Awareness Of Nature Literature Review

Coming across a person with little recognition of the processes which govern our ecosystem can be frustrating. For example, today I came across someone who viewed nature purely in the eyes of beauty and apparent gentility. To them anything that was alive, small, and covered with fur was valuable and worth attention. To me, however, items that are apparently deceased or decaying are a much more fascinating sight. For example, to most people a fallen trees is little more than an obstacle and potential firewood. While firewood is certainly a valid use of the energy in that tree, its mere existence offers much more. Inside, one can see that the tree becomes a vital part of the ecosystem, providing shelter and nutrients to creatures who feed upon it and continue the flow of matter. The same is true for a dead animal. Upon its demise, this creature provides nutrients to bacteria and eventually fertilization for the earth. While this animal could easily become food on that person’s table who then uses that energy to impact the environment, it serves an equal diverse purpose by re-entering the food chain at the bottom.
Equally as puzzling is the lack of understanding of animal’s defense mechanisms, which impact their survival in their communities and food system. For example, a baby bird pushed out of a nest by sibling is not much different than a human working to undermine another human in order to increase their chances of success. The only difference is that the act seems much crueler to a being with no apparent aims at self-preservation. Equally as important is the effect of outside aid on the entire fabric of food system. By feeding one particular animal, that well-meaning benefactor could aid one population, such as the grey squirrel, to such an extent that it will decrease the survival rate of another population, like the red squirrel. The worst case scenario end result, the extinction of a particular species, becomes even more tragic because the cause was not intentional.