Which Species Should We Save?

As you have probably heard, many species of animals are starting to become extinct. Rather than try to save every species that is beginning to die off, scientists in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences are now trying to decide which are the most crucial. These are the animals with the greatest genetic diversity, the team reported two weeks ago. Marc W. Cadotte, a researcher on the team, said, "Given that we are losing species from ecosystems around the world, we need to know which species matter the most -- and which we should pour our resources into protecting," . Taking one part out of an ecosystem may mean losing the whole ecosystem. For example, if all of the polar bears in an arctic ecosystem become extinct, the decomposers have no food. If there are no decomposers, the producers can't survive, and if producers can't survive, niether can herbivores. Once all the herbivores are gone, the carnivores die off, and the ecosystem is gone. So the scientists researching this have a really important decision to make- if they decide wrong, it can destroy many other ecosystems, ultimately leading to us- every ecosystem is ultimately linked together, called the biosphere. Scientists are saying that this is the second biggest extinction the world has seen, only to be beat by the extinction of the dinosaurs about 65million years ago. I am not sure how well this plan will work- every ecosystem in the world is connected via the biosphere, so it will ultimately affect us- I think it may be easier to save the most important parts of the ecosystem than to save every endangered species in the world.

Article by Yahoo! Green http://green.yahoo.com/news/livescience/20081021/sc_livescience/scientistsdeterminingwhichspeciestosave.html

New Study on Bottled Water

Scientific testing by the Washington- based Enviromental Working Group revealed that bottled water, which had been thought of as much purer than tap water, actually has some of the same contaminants. The major brands were tested, and they all seemed to comply with the federal health standards. The study of the ten major brands of bottled water revealed thirty- eight chemicals. Some of these chemicals are bacteria, caffeine, pain reliever acetaminophin, fertilizer solvents, plastic- making chemicals and the radioactive element strontium. Researchers said that some of the chemicals may have been from the tap water that some companies use, and others from the plastic bottles. The study, which was two years long, has found the contaminants in bottled water purchased in Washington, D. C. and nine other states. The study showed that all but two brands turned out to be pure enought to exclude them from further testing. I feel that bottled water should not be from a tap, and that it should be purified more by the companies. If this were to happen, less contaminants would be found in the water, and studies such as this would not be required.

Article by Yahoo! Green http://green.yahoo.com/news/ap/20081015/ap_on_sc/impure_bottled_water_1.html