Invasive Species in South America: Questions

1.   1.    I chose this criteria (fast growth, rapid reproduction, tolerance of a wide range of environmental conditions, ability to live off of a wild range of food types and association with humans) as I believed that it would successfully limit the number of invasive species.

2.    2.   I wanted to include different species and not concentrate on only one; therefore the process I used was to search for the worst invasive insect, mammal, fish and grass.

3.    3.   I eliminated the first three species by simply looking at how much impact they have on our environment, using my criteria. For example: The cherry barb has the least impact on the environment it introduced to, and therefore it is on fifth place.

4.   4.    (I was absent the day the discussion took place)

Invasive Species in South America

Should or should we not reduce meat consumption?

Yes, I believe we should reduce the global meat consumption. The huge amounts of CO² produced by the production of meat (farming, packing, transporting) could be significantly reduced if every person would consider one day per week as meat-free. However, not only this fact lead me to my belief. Early humans were not used to eating a great amount of meat, as it was fairly hard to get, compared to today. As an result the human body is still not comfortable with a large amount of meat per week, however on average, every human eats 50 grams per day. This is a lot and at times even too much for the body to handle which can cause severe health problems.

Q.: Is the area of the Indian Embassy biologically diverse?
A.: Last week we formed small groups and went to an area, which belongs to the Indian Embassy, close to our school, in order to take specimens and notes with which we wanted to calculate and observe the area and its diversity. Firstly, we shared our specimens and then added up the plants we had in common. However, we weren't able to only use our collections, therefore we had to ask the Indian Embassy for an estimate of the number of species found in the area, which was 193. Using this number and Simpson's Index we were able to quantify biodiversity of the area, which is 0,095.