Watch the following video segment titled “Humans: Destroyers of Ecosystems”:

New Atlantis (Producer). (2002). The sixth extinction: The human role [Video file]. Retrieved from https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?auth=CAS&url=http://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=273866&xtid=33721&loid=27830

Click here for a transcript of this video segment.

Discuss at least two benefits that humans derive from forests. How are these benefits affected by forest fragmentation? Do you think humans also lose an important habitat, as natural lands are lost to development? Explain.

No references…must be in own words per the professor

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Respond to my classmate response:

The video was excellent, I did not know that we were killing so many trees every day. One benefit that we derive from the forest is shelter or a home. There are still a lot of human beings in various areas of the world that still live in forests and call the forest home, we always talk about the animals being displaced when we cut down trees and clear large areas of land, but we seem to forget about the people who have lived there many years. The forest also helps regulate the earth’s temperature by absorbing C02, it is horribly ironic that we are cutting down the very organism that is providing us oxygen and absorbing harmful C02 for us. Forests can also affect the weather and can help generate rainfall.

Yes, human beings are losing a vitally important habitat. We continue to take and take from our forests and oceans but we are not putting back a fraction of what we have consumed or used. I’m afraid to think of what will be left of our forests, wildlife and oceans 75 years from now if we don’t figure something out.