The extinction rate, and examples of environmental science in progress

The extinction rate, as defined in the previous blog, describes the natural rate of species loss that happens as a part of Earth’s evolutionary process. This higher rate means a greater loss of species, which means a disruption in the balance of the ecosystem, and a loss of more species than in the previous 542 million years. This means that species that rely on the species that are being lost at a faster rate could suffer, and even die. But there are even more things impacting species loss, including habitat loss and overexploitation. Overexploitation of species causes them to dwindle in size until they don't exist, and causes other species that rely on them to suffer because they rely on the species above them, ruining the balance and the food web of the ecosystem. Habitat loss means less space for animals to live, reproduce, and find food, which makes them more vulnerable to extinction, especially if their habitat is lost or fragmented. Some examples of environmental science include investigating pollution, monitoring ecosystems, developing sustainable solutions, and conservation efforts. Some solutions to climate change have come up, and I recently learned about a policy called the “Make Polluters Pay Act”, and recently met with one of the creators of that bill. This act essentially just made big emission companies put funds towards projects and programs that would help stop climate change. And I have recently, while applying for something, proposed an idea that would hold companies more responsible for the emissions they emit, as right now, emissions are manually tracked, which would lead to manipulation by companies in order to either buy credits or sell credits. My solution was a digital ledger that used information from real-time sensors, which tracked emissions, to then put into a ledger that would be guarded by blockchain, making it hard to tamper with.