Ecology
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Ecology, as defined by Encarta Encyclopedia, is “the study of the relationship of plants and animals to their physical and biological environment” (Smith 1). Of course, one of the reasons why ecology is an important topic of study and concern among human beings is because we are one of the animals that has a relationship to the environment. The physical portion of the environment involves things like wind, soil nutrients, water and the atmosphere, while the biological portion contains similar organisms but also plants and animals. Ecology, like many disciplines, depends upon and works in relationship to other disciplines like mathematics and animal science. However, even ecology itself is divided into many aspects, such as animal ecology, population ecology and landscape ecology. Ecology is often misperceived as environmental science, but it is a distinct field and aspect of existence though the two together afford a greater understanding of each. Biologists, mathematicians, naturalists and others have greatly contributed to the understanding of ecology since the term was coined by German biologist Ernst Heinrich Haeckel in 1866 (Smith 1). Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and his concept of natural selection greatly added to our understanding of the relationship of plants and animals to the natural environment.Many models of ecology exist, but a useful one in particular takes into account the variables of population, economic dev
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nts despite overpopulation. Nonetheless, eventually something has got to give and experts warn that it will more than likely be humans if population levels and industrial development continue to increase at present rates, “The higher the development rate, the larger the human population, the steeper may be the fall, the higher the risk of total extinction as a result of such a fall. Up till that point everything may be developing in a sustainable way” (Voinov 11).
Ironically, despite evidence that human pollution and unchecked population development is having a negative affect on our ecological systems, there are some who take an opposing view. These scientists and theorists argue that environmentalists and others who are predicting the doom of the planet from human pollution are being egocentric in that they think humans have the ability to destroy the planet. They point out that massive numbers of species have become extinct without destruction of the planet or even life afterwards, like the dinosaurs’ extinction paving the way for larger mammals. Instead, they say that in the scheme of geological time, human beings cannot do much but destroy themselves and other species, but they cannot destroy the planet:
The postulati
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1598
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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