The process of globalization has become very intensive recently. Indeed, the whole world seems to turn into one great community with a unified culture, lifestyle, and system of values. What is more, this community tends to speak fewer and fewer languages, preferring to speak the language that is popular or simple, rather than the one that is native. On one hand, this process is essential, as far as it is based on the law of natural selection.
On the other hand, the extinction of minor languages leads to the extinction of certain cultural groups and their individualities, turning the world into a global grey crowd. So what should be done about the mentioned situation? Undoubtedly, the minor languages should be preserved.
The meaning of the languages that are on the edge of extinction today lies far beyond the linguistic concept. Indeed, languages do not only serve as a means of expression and comprehension; their function is much deeper. Apart from being a system of signs, a language carries a certain mentality, the character of the community it is spoken by. Moreover, the changes in the community’s life are inevitably reflected in its language.
Community and language function as one organism, and when a language dies out, the community also stops existing. In fact, it can become a part of another community, or adopt another language, but losing a native language means losing authenticity with no opportunity for further development and life. That is why, the process of languages extinction should be resisted.
Today the language policies aimed at preserving the minor languages are treated as unpopular and needless. The politicians see no sense in investing money into saving some language of an African community, as this investment will have no obvious use for USA or Europe. More and more money, however, are being spent on popularizing several “strong” languages, such as English, Russian, and Chinese. Indeed, all the countries of the world are to some degree English-speaking.
This is advantageous from economical and political points of view, and is bound to the experience of USSR, where the attempt to create a superpower started with accepting one unified language. The result of that policy, as well as of the one that is led today, is that the half of the world turns into one community with no certain culture, customs and traditions, but with one certain language to speak.
Due to the mentioned facts, we should realize that the preservation of minor languages is a worthy idea. This mission is close to the attempts to preserve the diversity of the nature, saving all of its creatures, their families and creatures. Every language has a history, and no language was made up just for fun.
Supporting a language that is on the edge of extinction means saving its history with the underlying culture. After all, if there is a number of popular languages, there should also be some private ones, which should be able to express some very intimate and very native feelings of their speakers.
All in all, it can be said that the intense process of modern globalization has led to the extinction of many minor languages. This process is hard to resist, however there is definitely a need for preserving the minor languages that still exist. Language policies aimed at supporting them should be treated as an attempt to save a piece of original culture, contained in a system of written and spoken signs. Popularizing the minor languages may be a purposeless task; however, their protection from dying out is extremely important.
The dialects that are in the linguistic minority such as the Suzhou dialect tend to be out of use as it occurs in East China’s Jiangsu Province, where it is replaced by the dominant language. Hu Shuning remembers that the promotion of Putonghua was spread across education and media that led to the reduced use of the Suzhou dialect. The interviewee notes that “a dialect’s unique words show the lifestyle and traditions of the people who speak it” (Yiqian).
After the establishment of Putonghua as the official language, many people began to consider this language to be the only correct one. In spite of the mentioned difficulties, many young people understand the role of their dialects and try to preserve them.
For example, Hu Shuning introduces a special account on the prominent WeChat social network that teaches her dialect. This account offers lessons on a daily basis, allowing people to learn it whenever and wherever they want, thus developing their native traditions and lifestyle. It should be emphasized that not only Chinese but also foreigners understand the great capacity of dialects. For instance, Kellen Parker and Steve Hanson, the American contributors, designed Phonemica, the website devoted to Chinese dialects and focused on various spoken stories.
Role of the Dialect
When it comes to Chinese, many people think that this is a monolithic and indivisible language spoken by every Chinese citizen. The problem of the reduction and extinction of the local dialects is one of the most sensitive and unresolved issues in China. In fact, Chinese is a collection of a large number of dialects, differing in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. There are seven main groups of the Chinese language: Putonghua, Yue, Cantonese, Minh, Hakka, Gan, and Xiang.
In addition to dialects, there are vernaculars within each of them, differing in stress or pronunciation of sounds. For example, well-known Putonghua in different cities of China sounds differently. The division of the Chinese language into dialect groups is due in most cases to geographical or historical factors. Each of the dialects of the Chinese language has all the criteria to have the status of a separate language, but a single written language for the whole of China ensures the integrity of this language.
Thus, the review of the given news article shows that Chinese, especially young people are aware of the current threatening situation with regards to dialects. Most importantly, they are ready to act and call others to action.
A rather important and culturally specific information can disappear forever with the extinction of the dialect. For example, knowledge of the unique medicines or receipts used by the local groups can be lost in case their dialect loses its place to some other formation, and this valuable information will be overwhelmed by knowledge from other cultures or merely forgotten. It is through the dialects the literary language is enriched and preserved to reveal the future generations a nation’s cultural values.
With the help of the dialect, a separate ethnos or nation preserves and transmits its culture and traditions. More to the point, dialects embody the national revival, preservation, and development. The dialect reveals the way of life of people, their values and landmarks, history and destiny. Every person who has mastered the dialect of his or her native culture has a certain way of thinking and vision. Therefore, the diversity of dialects can be regarded as the foundation of the contemporary multinational society.
Work Cited
Yiqian, Zhan. “Locals, Foreigners try to Keep Chinese Dialects Alive Despite Putonghua Dominance.” Global Times. 2017. Web.
Endangered Languages are languages that are growing obsolete because their native speakers are being lost. Endangered Languages are defined as those that won’t be spoken by coming generations in the next 100 years; while languages free from extinction are those that would be spoken by children in the coming 100 years. Most of the languages in the world fall under the endangered languages category with UNESCO approximating the percentage of endangered languages to be around 60%-80% (Global Language Hotspots, 2010). There are however about six thousand dialects spoken globally today.
Language extinction is therefore a result of languages being endangered. Extinct languages are dead languages. Extinct languages actually have no native speakers; in the sense that nobody uses it as his/ her main language (Salzman, 1998). Normally, this is a process that’s facilitated by the replacement of the original language with another (Hale and Ladefoged, 2006). For instance, Native American Languages were also substituted.In Egypt, the Arabian influence replaced the Coptic language and therefore making it extinct (Crawford, 1992).
This study will utilize Eastern Africa as a language hotspot. It will identify the endangered languages in the region and explain the factors that basically lead to the observation of this phenomenon. Eastern Africa is basically comprised of nations namely; Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan and Tanzania. This region is at the Horn of Africa but under the Sub Saharan region of Africa. It is majorly a Kiswahili speaking region with Tanzania embracing it in various social sectors such as education and government programs (National Geographic, 2010). Kenya was majorly a British colony, so English is majorly used in most of its social aspects including corporate affairs, education and other forums. Kiswahili is however it’s national language.
Other languages however characterize the region but are on a smaller scale. The number of languages spoken in this region is 215 with 17 genetic units (Global Language Hotspots, 2010). The threat level of languages in this region is not very high; it has a genetic index of 080 and a research index that’s yet to be determined (Global Language Hotspots, 2010).
The region being in Sub Saharan Africa, it’s majorly under agriculture and nomadic activities. Nomadic activities have led to assimilation and intermixing of languages at various social levels including trade (during the pre colonial era and afterwards). Omotik stands out to be an endangered language in Kenya. It has become moribund with fewer than 50 native speakers; most of them above the age of 40. Most of them had been assimilated into the Maasai language group who are majorly pastoralists in Kenya. The Omotik used to be hunters and gatherers and have been observed to be living among the Maasai population. They are noted to adopt the Maasai lifestyle of pastoralist and even speak Maasai as a language now. The descendants of Omotik grew using the Maasai language. The adoption of this language worked negatively on chances of living on for the language (Brenzinger, 1992).
Other endangered languages in the Eastern Africa region include the Birale who are a classical language group of Afro-asiatic living in Ethiopia. Currently there are only about 20 native speakers. Boon is also under the category of endangered languages with only 60 speakers of Cushitic origin. The Boon speaking group majorly inhabits Somalia. There exists another small minority group inhabiting Tanzania known as Gweno. There are less than 100 native speakers currently in existence. Karo is also an endangered Language with 200 native speakers. The language is spoken among the Omotic group residing in Ethiopia. Molo is an endangered language in Sudan among the East Jebel group residing in Sudan. There are only 100 native speakers left (Global Language Hotspots, 2010). Most the native speakers of these endangered languages are basically farmers, hunters and gatherers or pastoralists. Their religion orientation varies from place to place with groups in Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan majorly being Muslim whiles those from Kenya and Tanzania being Christian.
Language Extinction
Language extinction is a process whereby the language orientation of a community is affected. As a result, the level of linguistic competency in the language is decreased. Native speakers then become extinct as other languages take root. However, language death should be differentiated from language loss, as the latter depicts a scenario where there is loss of proficiency of language at an individual level only (Denison, 1977).
A comparison can be drawn between the extinction of languages and the extinction of plants and animals. The obvious reasons that could be attributed to this phenomenon are the effects of predators and competitors. The changing environment can also be an attribution to the same. The threat of languages is increasingly becoming prominent with the process going on in discretion. However, we seem to be living in a period of massive extinctions including the cultural heritage of various language speaking groups (Crawford, 1992).
However, the rate of language extinction cannot be correctly verified like the rate of plant and animal extinction through use of fossil records. Modern culture and technological revolutions have been noted to contribute immensely to language extinction. This has greatly encroached on the way of life for many native speakers. It has even sought to change the environment in which they live in. Consumerism and individualism has been noted to be great facilitators to language extinction. This has occurred on a forum of Western perpetration of cultures across various cultural blocks. A resultant destruction of land and livelihoods has been noted with a direct influence towards assimilation into dominant cultures. Unfortunately, this dominant pressure on assimilation is directed towards indigenous groups. The world’s bio diversity has greatly been affected as a result. Cultural and linguistic identities have also suffered the same impact (Denison, 1977). The case of the Omotik is a good example because they lost their cultural identity from being hunters and gatherers to pick up Maasai’s culture of pastoralism.
Language resuscitation is however possible as can be seen with the case of Hebrew language which had been dead for almost 2000 years but re-introduced in Israel. This effort to revitalize extinct language involves a lot of social and educational programs. The effort to revitalize languages is however ill-advised, if there is little hope for reviving extinct languages. Tremendous capital requirements are however needed to revitalize languages that are in the process of extinction or already extinct. This is because of the programs that have to be undertaken to initiate this course (Brenzinger, 1992).
Languages in Eastern Africa under the threat of extinction aren’t being countered with much revitalization efforts though. This is because the small minority languages are ignored by the government and other social groups. Most of the endangered languages are pre colonial and are overshadowed by other dominant but minority languages spoken in their countries of origin. For example the Omotik is being overshadowed by the Maasai language which is a small but dominant language in a larger context of a Swahili speaking nation (Kenya).
Governments have therefore neglected small languages in a wider quest to embrace national languages that would facilitate integration efforts. This is so, because the region (Eastern Africa) has been characterized by incidences of tribalism and civil unrests traced to a lack of integration among language speaking groups. Not much effort is being made to save the dying languages because of this reason.
For instance, recent community violence in Kenya after 2007 general election was greatly attributed to tribal differences between major language speaking groups. The government then undertook a massive social exercise to diffuse the influences of specific language speaking groups for a major pursuit of nationalism. Civil societies and the government have since then been involved in national exercises to promote the use of Kiswahili as a national language at the expense of smaller languages. However, specific language groups have undertaken individual initiatives to preserve their identities through showcasing authentic group activities like bull fighting and cultural nights that aim at preserving language identities.
Conclusion
Language extinction is critical in the sense that it preserves selective community heritages; though it might be destructive in the sense that it acts contrary to efforts of unifying communities. The context to which language extinction is studied should be analyzed relatively, with regard to the cause for preventing language extinction. The society which efforts for revitalizing languages are undertaken should also be put into consideration (McWorther, 1995). A nation like Israel would seek to gain from preserving its native languages like Hebrew but in the context of Eastern Africa, the effects would be different. This is because Israel isn’t susceptible to civil violence as a result of language identities.
Eastern Africa has experienced some of the worst cases of civil unrests facilitated by language group identities. The Rwanda genocide that took the lives of millions of people across the globe was majorly perpetrated by individual language groups more specifically the Hutsi and Tutsi tribes. These language groups killed each other in a blood bath across the nation which was among the worst forms of humanitarian disasters in the world, to date. The situation would however be different if Rwanda had a unifying language that most citizens would identify with. It would also be difficult for political leaders to use the avenue of language orientation and cultural identity to mobilize groups against each other.
I was aware of language extinction prior to this discussion because of the levels of Western dominance across the globe coupled with various cultural changes across decades. However, this study majorly depends on individual societies and contexts. Western dominance has greatly impacted on indigenous language speaking groups but has led to faster integration of economies, speaking the same language. More integration has also been observed in other social setups like marriage and even tourism facilitation. People would be more inclined to tour places where they can communicate effectively with the people around.
However, dominance of other cultures has been observed to be detrimental to societies at large; for example, the dominance of Western cultures over other conservative cultures. The culture is purported to increase immorality among other forms of social decadence that have led to a loss of core societal values. There have been cultures and individual groups that have been observed to have no issues with the influence of other cultures while some have been observed to be against external cultural influence. The situation is therefore varied.
Language preservation is therefore more detrimental than otherwise thought. There would be more to be gained if languages were to fade away and a more dominant culture used to cover every group. This would eliminate small segregational effects being experienced in the society today. Other sectors of the society have also been noted to develop as a result of the society integrating on a language front. Caution should however be made to preserve positive community identities like sports, specific economic activities and religious orientation but this shouldn’t be left to affect integration between language speaking groups for the betterment of the society.
References
Brenzinger, M. (1992). Language Death: Factual and Theoretical Explorations with Special Reference to East Africa. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Crawford, J. (1992). Language Loyalties: A Source Book on the Official English Controversy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Denison, N. (1977). Language death or language suicide? International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 12, 13-22.
Global Language Hotspots. (2010). Eastern Africa.
Hale, K., & Ladefoged, P. (2006). Should Anthropologists and Linguists be concerned about Endangered Languages? New York: Routledge.
McWorther, J. (1995). Most of the Worlds Languages Went Extinct. New York: Princeton Press.
National Geographic. (2010). Enduring Voices Project.
Salzman, Z. (1998). Endangered Languages and Language Death: Language Culture and Society. London: Oxford Publishers.
Protecting seabirds from extinction is a significant marine conservation issue nowadays. The existence of various seabird species contributes to biodiversity, necessary for ensuring the long-term functioning of ecosystems (Richards et al., 2021). Unfortunately, at present, many seabird species are at risk of extinction because of multiple anthropogenic threats, including bycatch, invasive species, land use, climate change, and energy production (Richards et al., 2021). This paper will focus on invasive species – animals or plants that do not originally appear in a particular area and are introduced by humans (Scanes, 2018). Among them, invasive rodent species are the most destructive to the environment and especially affect seabirds (Scanes, 2018). This paper will review seabirds’ role in ecosystems, the invasive rodent species and their impact on seabirds, and methods of protecting seabirds from non-native rodents.
Seabirds and Their Role in Island Ecosystems
Seabirds are birds living in the marine environment and depending on the ocean for food. These species are well-adapted for living in this environment with such traits as low fecundity, long lifespan, and foraging by diving for food underwater. As Richards et al. (2021) explain, these traits may have evolved to increase adult seabirds’ survival because feeding their offspring with food from the ocean is difficult. According to Jones et al. (2021), another reason for developing these traits is that seabirds often breed on remote islands where no mammalian predators have been originally present. Many seabird species are nesting at or below the ground level, and it takes them several years to reach sexual maturity.
Seabirds play an important role in island ecosystems. Coffey and Collier (2021) refer to seabirds as “ecological connectors” since they improve the growth of plants on islands, as well as intertidal zones and coral reefs (p. 62). They do so by transferring nutrients between the land and the ocean in their guano. Therefore, a reduction in the seabird population may be harmful to seabird species and the entire ecosystem of the island and surrounding intertidal communities and coral reefs.
Invasive Rodent Species
As mentioned, seabirds often live on islands that predatory mammals did not previously inhabit. Yet, with increased human mobility, an opportunity emerged for alien species to invade new territories. Rodents belong to such invasive species that have spread worldwide and influenced various ecosystems. According to Scanes (2018), there are four invasive rodent species threatening the survival of seabirds. They include the black rat (Rattus rattus), originating from India and South East Asia; the brown or Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus), coming from Northern China; the Pacific rat (Rattus exulans) from Polynesia; and the house mouse (Mus musculus) (Scanes, 2018). A common cause for rodents’ invasion of islands is shipwrecks occurring near these areas (Renner et al., 2018). Moreover, rats can swim over long distances ranging from 0.5 to 2 km, which means they can invade other islands close to the original island at which they arrived (Renner et al., 2018). Due to their diverse diet preferences and high survivability, rodents managed to inhabit many areas in which they were not present initially.
Impact of Invasive Rodents on Seabirds
Invasive rodent species significantly influence the life of seabirds. Rats and mice consume seabirds’ eggs and chicks, which, given the low fecundity of seabirds, leads to a significant reduction in their reproduction rates and may even lead to extinction. A study analyzing which seabirds’ traits increase their risk of being affected by rodents found that species with a pelagic specialism and slow reproductive speed were the most vulnerable to rodent threats (Richards et al., 2021). Examples include tubenose species, such as shearwaters, petrels, and albatrosses, which highly depend on the ocean for food and usually lay a single egg per season (Richards et al., 2021). Caravaggi et al. (2019) also found that species breeding in winter and nesting in burrows were most likely to fall prey to invasive rodents. This is because, in winter, rodents have fewer alternative food sources, so they consume seabirds’ eggs and chicks to survive the period of food scarcity. One interesting finding is that rodents feeding on avian material become larger than their continental peers: they have larger skull sizes and a higher average body mass (Caravaggi et al., 2019; van der Geer, 2018). It may pose additional risks to seabirds coexisting with rodents in the future.
The scope of invasive rodents’ negative impact on seabirds is vast. According to Renner et al. (2018), invasive species have contributed to 51% of all extinctions, and among these species, rats caused the highest number of seabird extinctions than any other non-native species. Invasive rodents undermine the breeding success of many seabirds. For example, on Gough Island, it is estimated that only 33% of seabird pairs succeed in raising their chicks to fledging due to nest depredation by mice (Caravaggi et al., 2019). Moreover, MacGillivray’s prion, a small-sized seabird species nearly endemic to Gough Island, can become extinct by 2057 with a 31% probability because of mouse predation (Jones et al., 2021). Rodent species also pose a significant threat to the survival of endemic seabird species – Vireo gracilirostris and Elaenia ridleyana – on Fernando de Noronha (Micheletti et al., 2020). This evidence suggests that, without effective interventions, seabirds are at an increased risk of extinction due to invasive rodent species’ predation.
Ways of Protecting Seabirds from Invasive Rodent Species
Previously, eradicating rodents from islands was considered an impossible task. However, nowadays, not only is this viewed as possible, but there are also examples of successful eradication. For instance, in 2017, the rodent species R. rattus was eradicated from the Meio island, which is part of the Fernando de Noronha archipelago (Micheletti et al., 2020). This led to an increase in the breeding population of Sula leucogaster and E. ridleyana three months later (Micheletti et al., 2020). On Saint-Paul Island, situated in the south of the Indian Ocean, rat eradication resulted in increased seabird population growth rates 20 years later, especially in species most vulnerable to rodent depredation (Barbraud et al., 2021). Yet, even if eradicating one rodent species appears to be successful, it may not always positively affect seabird populations. For instance, on the Island of Rum, Scotland, rat eradication led to an increased activity of mice, which neutralized the positive effects of the operation (Lambert et al., 2021). Nevertheless, evidence shows that rodent eradication campaigns can be an effective method of preserving seabird species.
Yet, rat and mouse eradication may turn out to be useless if no preventive measures are taken to avoid rodents’ reinvasion of islands. For example, although the largest rodent eradication campaign conducted on the island of South Georgia cleaned the area from rodents, 3.5 years later, new tracks of rats were noticed on the snow shortly after two ships moored nearby (Martin & Richardson, 2019). To detect whether the rodent species remained after unsuccessful eradication or reinvaded, researchers may use various genetic and genomic instruments (Sjodin et al., 2020). The possibility of reinvasion points to the need for preventive measures and public education.
Conclusion
To sum up, by traveling by ships, humans introduced invasive rodent species to islands serving as the habitat for many seabird species. Non-native rodents present a significant threat of seabird extinction, undermining seabirds’ breeding success by eating their eggs and chicks. Rodent eradication campaigns appear effective for clearing islands from rodents, but they are expensive, and preventive measures are needed to protect the areas from reinvasion.
References
Barbraud, C., Delord, K., Le Bouard, F., Harivel, R., Demay, J., Chaigne, A., & Micol, T. (2021). Seabird population changes following mammal eradication at oceanic Saint-Paul Island, Indian Ocean. Journal for Nature Conservation, 63(126049), 1-9.
Caravaggi, A., Cuthbert, R. J., Ryan, P. G., Cooper, J., & Bond, A. L. (2019). The impacts of introduced House Mice on the breeding success of nesting seabirds on Gough Island. Ibis: The International Journal of Avian Science, 161(3), 648-661.
Coffey, J., & Collier, N. (2021). Introduced mammals threaten the Grenadines transboundary tropical seabird hotspot. Journal of Caribbean Ornithology, 34, 61-74.
Jones, C. W., Risi, M. M., Osborne, A. M., Ryan, P. G., & Oppel, S. (2021). Mouse eradication is required to prevent local extinction of an endangered seabird on an oceanic island. Animal Conservation, 24(4), 637-645.
Lambert, M., Carlisle, S., Cain, I., Douse, A., & Watt, L. (2021). Unexpected involvement of a second rodent species makes impacts of introduced rats more difficult to detect. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 1-10.
Martin, A., & Richardson, M. (2019). Rodent eradication scaled up: Clearing rats and mice from South Georgia. Oryx, 53(1), 27-35.
Micheletti, T., Fonseca, F. S., Mangini, P. R., Serafini, P. P., Krul, R., Mello, T. J., Freitas, M. G., Dias, R. A., Silva, J. C. R., Marvulo, M. F. V., Araujo, R., Gasparotto, V. P. O., Abrahão, C. R., Rebouças, R., Toledo, L. F., Siqueira, P. G. S. C., Duarte, H. O., Moura, M. J. C., Fernandes-Santos, R. C., & Russell, J. C. (2020). Terrestrial invasive species on Fernando de Noronha archipelago: What we know and the way forward. In V. Londe (Ed.), Invasive species: Ecology, impacts, and potential uses (pp. 51-94). Nova Science Publishers.
Renner, M., Nelson, E., Watson, J., Haynie, A., Poe, A., Robards, M., & Hess, S. C. (2018). The risk of rodent introductions from shipwrecks to seabirds on Aleutian and Bering Sea islands. Biological Invasions, 20(9), 2679-2690.
Richards, C., Cooke, R. S., & Bates, A. E. (2021). Biological traits of seabirds predict extinction risk and vulnerability to anthropogenic threats. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 30(5), 973-986.
Scanes, C. G. (2018). Invasive species. In C. G. Scanes & S. R. Toukhsati (Eds.), Animals and human society (pp. 413-426). Academic Press.
Sjodin, B. M., Irvine, R. L., & Russello, M. A. (2020). RapidRat: Development, validation and application of a genotyping-by-sequencing panel for rapid biosecurity and invasive species management. PloS One, 15(6), e0234694.
van der Geer, A. A. (2018). Changing invaders: Trends of gigantism in insular introduced rats. Environmental Conservation, 45(3), 203-211.
The Cause of Human Extinction: Nature’s ferocity or People’s irresponsibility?
The creation of the Universe as we know it now remains a big mystery to scientists. There has been much speculation about the origins of the Universe, but much of it remains mere theory. Religious sects, on the other hand, have all the answers, and brook no arguments about it. Whatever religion considered will tell you the world was created by the highest power, the Great One, the Creator who may go by many names but essentially the same conceptual entity.
Scientists are unlikely to accept this on faith. However, while there may be a wide gap on the theory of creation, there is one thing that scientists and the faithful agree on based on their respective mantra. The end of the world is near.
In fact, scientists base this assumption on facts. One fact is the extinction of the dinosaurs that makes the possibility of an extinction level event happening. Another fact is the present global climate change that makes for a slower but nonetheless progressive destruction of the human race, and many other races for that matter, very possible. Those of a more religious persuastion ascribe imminent destruction to human agency as a product of waywardness and a refusal to follow the righteous path. Strangely enough, these two seemingly apposite convictions have two elements in common: nature and humanity.
This paper seeks to look into history and determine to what degree nature can be blamed for the apparently inevitable destruction of the human race, and to what level humans should be held accountable. The following sections will provide statistical data and projections as well as non-scientific scenarios for the end of the world and the extinction of the human race.
The Apocalypse
Humans are just one of the many billions of life forms that has been lucky enough to call this planet home. But sooner or later, that luck will run out. In fact, over 99% of the species that are ever existed on Earth are now extinct. Every one of this billion species that died from recent extinction doesn’t have enough intellect as we have now. Can this intellect save us from the next possible extinction? Or we are the one who will dig our own grave into the end of our civilization?
For centuries, religion all around the world has warning believers about the end of the world. Muslims, Christians and Jews all preach that the final days are marked by crises, violence and destruction beyond our imagination. Some refer to it as the Armageddon, some the Apocalypse. Science, on the other hand, has not made it any better, predicting their own apocalyptic scenarios.
Gamma Rays
Scientists said that in 10 million years, the sun would; ergo so will the human race and any other living thing that needs the sun to survive. Of course, stars die everyday and as they die they unleash the most powerful force in the universe. According to some cosmologists, a dying sun emits a radioactive light brighter than millions or trillions of stars. Imagine if that power were unleash upon us, the result would be catastrophic.
Not enough people take pause and reflect on our own true place in universe, we like to think of ourselves as having power over our fate despite the fact that the power of the universe is vastly exceeded. For instance, a nova explosion or gamma ray burst is one of the powerful events in our cosmos. A gamma ray burst is the final collapse of a star.
Scientists have seen these explosions that occur on a daily basis in other galaxies. These gamma rays are far enough away to keep the Earth and its inhabitants safe. They merely manifest as a sort of cosmic anomaly, perhaps like a “shooting star.” However, if a gamma ray burst occurs near enough, such as in our own galaxy, it will be strong enough to wipe out all life on earth, including humans.
Gamma ray bursts travel at the speed of light. Consequently, places around the world would have no warning that an outer space disaster is about to unfold. If the gamma ray burst ruptures it would be the brightest thing on the night or day on the sky. As a result, you will see two suns during the day and there would be no night. If you see it, you know something bad is happening.
The nearest star from the earth that could explode is 8,000 light years away. However, even at that distance, such a burst could be catastrophic. The book Gamma-Ray Burst Astronomy 2001 describes these catastrophic scenarios. First, as the light hits the earth, it will boil the whole top of the earth’s atmosphere and the consequences of that is bad enough. It will take out the ozone layer that protects the earth from cosmic radiation. As it penetrates the earth’s crust, the energy of the radiation will destroy the very building blocks of life. The ultra violet radiation would burn people through. Without the ozone layer, every living thing with sight will be blinded. Within days, the radiation will begin to impact all living things in the molecular level, stopping all cells from reproducing.
Most of the living things on earth would not survive this kind of radiation. After one month, all life forms would be gone from the face of the earth. If any life survives at all, it would be the simplest organisms, microbes that thrive under the earth’s surface and therein lies some hope that life on earth will continue. However, humans will not be among them.
Asteroid Impact
Another danger our civilization faces is an asteroid impact. About 65 million years ago, a major asteroid hit the earth that is believed to be the primary cause of dinosaur extinction. Could their fate be ours as well? Can our advanced technology and scientific knowledge save us from suach an impact?
Asteroids are chunks of rock believed to be the debris left over from a birth of a planet. They could be as small as a golf ball or as huge as the state of Nevada.
According to book “The Planetary Scientist’s Companion”, by K. Lodders and B. Fegley, asteroids are found within the main asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter. Its speed ranges from 800-1000 ft/sec. It is about 60 times faster than an average bullet.
To keep us from going the way of dinosaurs, a network of professional and amateur astronomer around the globe are exploring the galaxy. They map and name every asteroid they can find. After naming them, they study their movement pattern to identify if it is a possible threat in our planet. So far they have located over a 100,000 asteroids, but not one of them was found to have the potential to wreak destruction on Earth, until 2006.
In 2006, astronomers discovered a 390-meter wide asteroid they named Aphopis and it is likely to come within striking distance of the Earth in the near future.
The article from “Guardian Unlimited” December 2005 issue, reports that on Friday the13th, April 2029, the asteroid Aphopis will come close enough the earth to dip into our orbit and will just miss us. However, some scientists said that depending on how the earth’s gravity will affects it orbit, it is projected to make a return trip seven years later. Depending on where it passes in 2029, there is a good probability it will strike the when it comes back in 2036.The article further explains that if Aphopis actually hits the earth in 2036, the effects would be devastating. It would create a tsunami 100 feet high that would rise above the ocean with supersonic speed. It is big enough to create the worst damage of life on earth in recorded history. They estimate that the impact is capable of washing California away. However, asteroid Aphopis is not big enough to wipe us out completely. But the probabilities that an even bigger asteroid will be coming towards the earth are high. So what are humans doing to address this deadly threat?
According to Robert Roy Britt’s article from Space.com, NASA has already formulated a plan to save the earth from an asteroid impact. Regardless of what filmmakers would have us believe, the worse thing we could do is to blow it up; all that will do is to break up a big asteroid into many smaller ones than can cause even more damage. Instead, NASA deems what they need is a ship that is capable of flying millions of miles into space to rendezvous with the asteroid. The plan is to use the ship’s gravitational pull to nudge the asteroid slightly off course. The tiny gravitational pull from the asteroid and the spacecraft should be enough to push the asteroid into a new path so a few years later it will miss the earth.
However, that’s only a theory. There is no such spacecraft, not even the blueprints for one. If we can put this plan into action and it succeeds, perhaps it will save humanity. If it fails, the scientists would know a long time in advance. If nothing else, it will reveal to us the exact date our world will come to an end.
Doomsday scenarios
How would you behave if you knew when the world would end? Would you go to school or work? Would you pay your debts? As the final days approach, would our lives descend into turmoil? Or would we tie together and look for something more? There would probably more people who will party because they realize that they only a little time left. Other people will spend time praying and repenting for their sins before their death. Some people, determined to survive, will try to find some other way to optimize their chances of survival. Some would probably build self-sufficient communities deep beneath the earth. As our expiration day becomes nearer, governments would most probably collapse and money would become worthless. Society would have discovered a new set of rules.
I think as we get closer and as that sand of time runs out, it would be harder to enforce the rules. The world will sink into total chaos. But what we need to do as we see this asteroid approaching is to look for love; we need to appreciate and care for what we have. And for those people who have no one, we can generously look for that comfort they can have as time gradually ends. Finally, all people in the surface of the earth would wake up one and know that it is the last day of the world.
The book Comet/Asteroid Impacts and Human Society: An Interdisciplinary Approach illustrates the scenarios of what should we expect after an asteroid impact. As it impacts the earth, it would dig in the earth’s surface. There would be massive tidal waves and earthquakes, but the worst will be the gigantic clouds and debris that engulf the earth. The force is enough to trust a large quantity of earth crust into the atmosphere. Within a little as an hour, people on the opposite side of the planet will begin to feel the effects of the impact. Thousands of small portions of asteroid will shower down from the sky like a meteor shower. The following debris will soon burn up the upper atmosphere, creating a fire that will blanket the planet. If there are any survivors, they will emerge to find the pitchblack planet, covered by a thick layer of ash in the atmosphere and preventing most of the sunlight from getting through. Within several months, the sun will be completely blocked, and outside the environment will become totally uninhabitable. The sulfuric fire would drop the PH level to that of an alkaline battery, turning the earth into an inhospitable wasteland. Humans will not survive these conditions.
Nature
Another threat to us is hidden close to our home. In fact, do not look up. Look down, because what lies beneath could really rock your world. According to Dr. Horne, a specialist in Geo-hazard that “we exist to this planet purely by nature’s consent; if nature decides she’s had enough, we are out”. Many threats we face comes from above, however only one comes from below, and that is the infamous Super volcano. Many believe Earth is “solid ground” but in fact, beneath a thin layer of crust is a pressurized ocean of molten rock looking for a way out. Occasionally, it will find one.
According to Map Quest website, about 1021 miles away from the bay area lies the Yellowstone National Park, which is known for its super volcanoes. Supplying the heat that causes steam to erupt is a massive underground lake that has the potential to break out in massive amounts at any time. Such an eruption could render us extinct because it would be a global wide event.
Yellowstone is a super volcano that is part of a huge magma chain underneath located at Wyoming State. It has erupted in the past and histologists say that the next eruption is overdue. According to the article from Daily Science, Underground Hell, by Estheban Smith, Yellowstone experiences a super eruption about one in every 600,000 years but the last one was over 630,000 years ago. When it went off that time, almost a quarter of the earth was buried under 30 feet of ash and many species were decimated.
According to the same article from Daily Science, top scientists in the world have collaborated to come up with these following scenarios after an eruption. First, the explosion will incinerate everything within a certain radius, sending clouds of massive poisonous ash rising across the planes. It would take only an hour to cover a quarter of the United States. Definitely, there would be panic. Then, once the cloud hits, evacuation could be impossible. The drift of ash would be over 8 feet and heavier than snow. They also predicted it would be so thick that it will clog combustion engines, stranding rescuers. Almost immediately, all people outside will be suffocated by toxic sulfuric ash. People who stay indoors will discover that their house will provide them little protection. Those who manage to survive would have nowhere to go. Within weeks, the volcanic ash would immobilize the whole country. Planes would not be able to fly and trucks would not be fit to be driven to deliver food and medical supplies to the people. As a result, there would be financial instability, riots and panic. Within months, the temperature would begin to plummet as the sulfuric gas eruption spread around the planet. Gradually, the thick cloud of ash would block the solar energy from the sun. Eventually, the planet would be plunged into an Ice Age that would last for years. As a result, it would be extremely difficult to grow crops and the world would experience a global famine.
Humanity
We tend to blame nature for natural catastrophes and disasters, but in fact, we are our own worst enemy. We do far worse things than nature and the effects last longer than any natural disaster. Global warming, nuclear war, and supercomputers are presently the most immediate threat to humanity’s sruvival. The kind of destruction that we are reaping for ourselves is more predisposed to kill off humans sooner than anything nature does.
We live in a world where science fiction is becoming real life all the time. When many of us were growing up, computer chips and cell phones lived only in the imagination of writers and scientists. Now we cannot imagine life without them. Where will technology lead us? Will catering to our convenience be the death of us?
Man versus machine
Supercomputers as a reason for extinction may seem improbably but scientists say that it is entirely possible. They predict that computers can in principle emulate human intelligence and eventually improve on it. Man vs. Machines is a concept that has been a staple of popular culture in the modern era. The idea sells a lot of movie tickets but can machines really outsmart humans? In sounds like a joke, but some of the best scientists say that massive intelligent machines could actually threaten humanity in the future.
Nuclear threat
Another manmade tool of destruction is the nuclear bomb. Man now posses the power to generate the destructive power of a star. Mankind is literally taking a piece of a sun and placing it on earth in a neat package. The power that gives all energy in the universe is been replicated through nuclear bomb. It’s an amazing achievement but it carries a great potential of destruction. Can we control what we have created?
From the start it is clear that we cannot. In 1950’s the USSR and the United States built over 20,000 nuclear weapons. Today, it is the nuclear ambition of the terrorist group and the intention of India, Pakistan, Iran and North Korea seems to have the world’s tension. The Russia and U.S. still have thousands of nuclear weapons and many of them can be launched at anytime. According to research, the number of weapons the world has is equivalent of 80,000 Hiroshima bomb. The bomb in Hiroshima killed 100,000 people, if we have 80,000 of those we can kill 8 billion people and we only have 6 billion on the planet.
Climate
But the most alarming artificial threat to humanity is very evident nowadays; the infamous climate change or global warming. During Earth’s long history, the climate has changed many times. Our planet experienced events such as ice ages and long periods of warmth. In the past, natural factors such as volcanic eruptions and changes in amount of energy released from the Sun have altered the Earth’s climate. This is not a prophecy of doom but a wake up call to all of us.
A gas in our atmosphere known as carbon dioxide is the primary cause of global warming. What is so bad about carbon dioxide? The book Biology, Concept and Application sixth edition, explains how this gas affects the warming of our planet. It defines carbon dioxide as the most prevalent of our so-called greenhouse gasses. It traps the sunrays allowing only about 30% of the sun’s heat to escape back into space. Without this natural cozy blanket of carbon dioxide, most of the sun’s heat would escape and our planet would literally freeze over. On the other hand, if there is too much carbon dioxide, the atmosphere will absorb and accumulate heat until the earth will begin to resemble Venus, which has an average temperature 900 degree Fahrenheit.
By analyzing ancient arctic ice samples, scientists had been able to track both the temperature and carbon dioxide level going back thousands of years. It was found that whenever the carbon dioxide rose, the temperature rose as well.
Around the world, people are noticing sudden changes in their backyard and variance in the natural world that have climate experts concerned. We see springtime coming two weeks earlier, less snow in the mountains, heavy rainfall and we have already seen the sea level rise eight inches. The planet is changing before our very eyes, and this is going to have a big impact that we don’t understand yet but we can see it would be big.
For instance, according to the article of Jeffrey Klugger, “Global Warming heats up”, the average incidence of category 5 and 4 hurricanes have nearly doubled in the last 30 years and we are seeing more forest fires. Greenland is melting faster than normal and all this things are happen within the same time span. Adding it all up, scientists say that what we were seeing is the beginning of a planetary climate shift that has potentially adverse consequences for life on earth.
Another clear evidence about global warming is just happened last year. The first half of 2006 was the hottest ever recorded, and some scientists say that it is the result of excessive carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere. Because carbon dioxide is already in the air, it will only get hotter for at least several decades.
Global warming is a bad news for us but it will be more devastating for other creatures like penguins and polar bears whose habitat is literally melting away. New data shows that the Greenland and the west Antarctic ice sheet are melting faster than expected, and because these hold over a quadrillion gallons of water, it will cause a dramatic rise in the sea level.
The article “Global Warming heats” from CNN times further covers this concern. The approximation of the rise in the sea level is placed at 20 feet provided the Greenland ice sheet melts entirely. If the west Antarctic ice sheet collapses into the sea tha will result in another 20 feet rise in the sea level. If the global warming continues exponentially, a quarter of our planet’s land mass will be covered by water as early as the year 2100.
As global warming raises the sea level dramatically, the book Global Warming – Myths or Reality? by Marcel Lerux provides the possible scenarios of a world drowning in water. First, we will see mass migration. An estimated 1 billion people worldwide will be forced to travel inland. The remaining habitable land will ironically be gripped by another kind of water crisis. In the west, 75% of the drinkable water comes from snow pack. As a result of global warming, there will no more ice packs that we can depend on. With the planet’s fresh water in short supply, it is going to be difficult to grow crops leading to a worldwide food shortage igniting a new set of crisis. These crises will cause war, famine and drought; these, coupled with an unstable climate could push the death casualty into the billions. This would be at the level of disaster that the world has never seen.
Conclusion
It has been made clear that while nature is capable of wreaking havoc and massive destruction on the Earth and its inhabitants, such forces are beyond our control. When nature decides it is time to wipe out the human race from the face of the Earth, all our technology and knowledge is not likely to save us. However, that does not mean that we will not keep trying, and perhaps we will prevail before the forces of nature.
What is more important for people to realize is that there are some things that we can control now with certainty to ensure our own survival. This is our own propensity for self-destruction. Much of the potential for worldwide destruction has been created by humans, through the careless and wanton use of natural resources and through the invention of weapons of destruction that humans have created in the name of power and domination. The means to eliminate these threats are in our power if only we realize that it is in our best interests to act immediately before it is too late.
The choice is ours. We can choose between a modest warming and a radical warming. We can choose to blow ourselves up with nuclear bombs or use the technology to conserve our natural resources and ensure the future for our children. For the first time in the history, our generation now controls the destiny of the planet itself and unless we are not careful, our children and grandchildren will inherit only ashes and a ruined Earth. I think the greatest tragedy in the universe will be to realize that we may have enough intelligence and technology to save ourselves against a killer asteroid but not enough intelligence to save us from ourselves.
References
Alok Jha “It’s called Apophis. It’s. And it could hit Earth in 31 years time” article from Guardian Unlimited, 2006.
It is crucial to note that the extinction of species and populations as a result of unconstraint processes is natural. For thousands of years of geological time, the extinction of some species has been balanced by the emergence of the new ones. Similarly, the loss of the local population (for instance, because of the settlement) has been compensated by the formation of another population.
However, human activity has greatly contributed to an increase in the extinction rate and has put many species and populations under threat of premature disappearance (Burns 18). In XX century, people caused the extinction of hundreds of known vertebrates as well as invertebrates. Needless to say that the premature extinction of species has serious consequences for the environment and biodiversity. In order to understand the major causes and consequences of this process, it is necessary to analyze the different aspects of it.
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the totality of all life forms inhabiting the planet. It is the richness of life and its processes including a multiplicity of living organisms and their genetic differences as well as a variety of places of their existence. Biodiversity can be divided into three hierarchical categories: diversity among the same species (genetic diversity), diversity between species, and between ecosystems (Swanson 31).
It is important that premature extinction inevitably affects all three forms. The greatest diversity of species is typical for (in descending order): humid equatorial forests, coral reefs, tropical dry forests, moist forests of the temperate zone, oceanic islands, Mediterranean climate landscapes, and treeless (savanna, steppe) landscapes (Swanson 31). In the past two decades, the issue of biodiversity has become increasingly important not only for specialists in biology but also for economists, politicians, and the public due to the apparent threat of anthropogenic degradation of it, which is now much higher than the natural degradation.
Several aspects should be considered in terms of consequences of the premature extinction to the biodiversity. Many of the most crucial properties of biological diversity are manifested in natural environments exclusively. For instance, there is a co-evolutionary and ecological relationship between tropical flowers, hummingbirds, and flower mites; the latter use hummingbird beaks to move from flower to flower (Gaston and Spicer 94). Such links would have never been formed if the plants and animals lived in isolation in zoos and botanical gardens.
Similarly, uncommon behaviors of desert animals that they apply when searching for water would not have arisen in animals that have sufficient amounts of water supplies. It should be noted that even if a considerable part of the diversity of flowering plants and vertebrate animals were secured in zoos and gardens, the diversity would still lose its ecological relationships characteristic of natural communities. It is the main argument that should encourage keeping all the biological communities safe.
Further, the evolutionary adaptation is under threat. It’s a process that ultimately leads to the emergence of new species and increases biodiversity (Swanson 39). Therefore, it is necessary to provide the opportunity for populations to develop in vivo. Human actions that stifle the evolution of populations, for example, due to a strong reduction in the number of a particular species or the destruction of unique populations, are destructive.
Causes of Premature Extinction
According to various sources, at present, more than thirty thousand species of animals and plants are under the threat of extinction. Over the past 400 years, more than 484 animal species and 654 plant species have disappeared (Schneider 55). The reasons for the accelerated decline in biological diversity include a number of circumstances. For instance, the rapid population growth and economic development force a huge change in the conditions of life of all organisms and ecological systems of the Earth.
The increasing migration of people, the growth of international trade and tourism, and the settings for these processes also adversely affect biodiversity. One of the major reasons is the increasing pollution of natural water, soil, and air as a consequence of human activity as well (Schneider 55). In addition, the lack of attention to the long-term consequences of actions that destroy the conditions for the existence of living organisms that exploit natural resources as well as the introduced non-native species also contribute to decreasing in biological diversity and premature extinction. The impossibility to assess the true value of biodiversity in the market economy implies a careless attitude towards the environment.
Over the past 400 years, the direct causes for the disappearance of animal species were the introduction of new species accompanied by the expulsion or extermination of the local ones; the destruction of the natural habitats, and the direct removal of the territories inhabited by animals; and the uncontrolled hunting. Scientists have concluded that many species of plants, animals, birds, and insects disappear a thousand times faster compared to natural rates. It means that the planet loses from 10 to 130 species every day (Schneider 101).
At present, over 40% of all living species are under the threat of extinction. If this rate continues to grow or accelerate, the number of endangered species will amount to millions in the next decade. The disappearance of certain species will inevitably lead to global environmental problems threatening the stability of the entire ecosystem of the Earth.
Endangered Species and Causes for Their Possible Extinction
At present, there are many species and animals, birds, and plants, which are under the threat of premature extinction. For example, Sumatran Orangutan is threatened by the loss of habitat due to excessive logging of forests and territory conversion for agriculture and road construction (Barr 43). Despite the creation of national parks, forests are being cut down illegally. In addition, poaching and catching of the cubs with a view to reselling them put this species in danger. Over the past 75 years, the number of orangutans living in Sumatra has decreased by over 80%, and it continues to decline steadily.
Further, Iberian Lynx is mentioned in the category of animals that are in critical condition. According to researches, there are approximately 200 Iberian Lynxes left (Barr 47). Despite the fact that about 35 million USD have been allocated for the salvation of these wild cats, the situation related to their population is critical. The complexity of the issue is that among these 200 species that live in the wild only 22-32 females are ready to breed (Barr 43). Apart from that, White Rhinos are also ultimately endangered. In the wild, adult rhinos practically have no enemies other than humans.
The main threat to all rhinoceros species is poaching. Its horn is a precious good on the black market as it is used for decorative and medical purposes. On the black market, the cost for rhino horns is up to thirty thousand USD. Further, Whale Shark is also in great danger (Rice 19). Despite the ban on fishing, the mining for sharks in South-East Asia and India continues. The peculiarity of whale sharks is their long puberty and slow rate of reproduction, which makes the rapid recovery of the population impossible. Every year the number of whale sharks in the world is reduced by 5%.
Sifaka is a class of endangered lemurs. The loss of habitat due to active logging and burning of forests in the region and the ongoing hunt for lemurs are the main threats to the existence of this genus. Also, the number of Wild Bactrian camels has decreased to a thousand individuals for a variety of reasons. Firstly, they are hunted; secondly, people shoo them during construction works; and thirdly, they are bred with domestic camels, which implies that the offspring become infertile. The Siberian Tiger also relates to the animal species in danger of premature extinction. Tiger bone is highly valued on the black market. At present, the number of tigers living in the wild is estimated at 431 – 529 individuals (Burns 119). The illegal large-scale logging and forest fires deprive tigers of their usual habitat.
Further, Leatherback Turtle feeds on jellyfish, and it is able to dive for them at incredible depth. However, they often get confused and swallow plastic bags thrown by people, for that reason many members of this species die (Rice 21). Moreover, Western Gorillas were classified as endangered in 2007. Poaching, commercial logging, and climate change continue to violate the ecological balance of the environment and lead to the gradual disappearance of their populations.
Also, nowadays Giant Panda can only be found only in some mountain ranges in central China, mainly in Sichuan province, and to a lesser extent in the provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu. Due to human activity and deforestation, Giant Pandas have been driven out of the lowland areas where they used to live. Since ancient times Giant Panda has been the target of poaching not only by the local residents who hunted them for soft skin but also by foreigners (Burns 201). The population of Giant Panda annually inexorably declines due to the extremely low birth rate both in the wild and in captivity. Scientists estimated that there were less than 1600 individuals left. Thus, judging by the described cases, the main causes of species premature extinction are reduced largely to human activity.
Conclusion
The destruction and reduction of species habitat leading to the fragmentation of species populations or their displacement are the main causes of species extinction. Other causes are related to the direct or unintentional destruction of natural habitats due to human activity. These reasons have led to the disappearance or resulted in critical population sizes, the possibility of survival of which raises serious concerns.
It is obvious that for predicting the fate of any species whose population quantity falls, it is necessary to investigate both the natural and anthropogenic factors that affect their condition. These way special measures can be thought through and implemented to change the situation for the better. It is essential to raise awareness of people and implement practices aimed at preserving all the species to ensure that the biodiversity will be maintained.
Works Cited
Barr, Nevada. Endangered Species, New York: Hachette, 2013. Print.
Burns, Rex. Endangered Species, London: Head of Zeus, 2014. Print.
Gaston, Kevin, and John Spicer. Biodiversity, Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2013. Print.
Rice, William. Endangered Animals of the Sea, Huntington Beach: Teacher Created Materials, 2013. Print.
Schneider, Jacqueline. Sold into Extinction, Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2012. Print.
Swanson, Timothy. Global Action for Biodiversity, New York: Routledge, 2013. Print.
Sharks are vibrant apex predators, which are generally important in the maritime lifecycle. However, the larger ones are worn-out quicker than they are expected to breed. In fact, this portends the dependability of aquatic ecosystem around the globe.
It is zealous having sharks given that for more than forty million years, they have been necessary for the well-being of the sphere, surroundings, and have fashioned the maritime as well as oceanic lifestyles. Moreover, sharks have both natured and nurtured the continued existence of human race in the long run.
Thus, it is significant for the marshals to guard and secure the naval areas to uncover the abuse and intervene to discontinue the vicious killing of sharks. Sharks continuously rambled marine from the periods when dinosaurs were known to be the most exhilarating water animals.
However, their extensive reign at the zenith of the oceanic food chains might be culminating with time as the species become gradually extinct. The population of sharks for the last sixty-one years has dwindled considerably due to the inception of industrialized fishing. It is indeed imperative to save sharks from the extinction threats that make thirty percent (30.0%) of sharks and other rare species more susceptible to killing for commercial purposes.
This dream can only be realized through the support of International Nature Conservation Union. The commercialization or consumption of shark fin has resulted into a tremendous toll on sharks’ killers as they reduce sharks populace. Shark finning entails an act of fishing the shark, cutting off the fins, and disposing the body remains in the deep-sea.
While running and maintaining worldwide shark fin trade, approximately seventy four million sharks are primarily slayed per annum. For instance, shark fin soup is cherished in the lieu of the Asian delicacy. Generally, over a long period of time and in their entire lifespan, sharks reproduce very few young ones, propagate slowly, and take time to reach maturity stage.
Hence, it is ideal to stop killing sharks given that it exposes them to a state of sluggish recovery from depletion, and extinction besides making the species susceptible to overexploitation. The entire shape of deep-sea ecology faces jeopardy from the diminution of sharks, which are the main predators.
An essential habitat often becomes vanished provided the tiger sharks are killed for broth such that they cannot control their preys’ foraging. In fact, the tiger sharks are interrelated to the eminence of the oceanic lawn beds. Thus, the despair is evident through their kill, green sea turtles, and dugongs, which feed on these seabeds.
Shark slaughter must be stopped if we want to survive, otherwise, the marine will not be able to conserve the healthy steadiness of the oceanic life expectancy. Furthermore, there will be no more shark fin soup, and the disappearance of other seafood species will emerge globally.
To boost the existence of sharks, we should be jointly cautious about the killing and consumption of shark fin broths. Definitely, the flavor of shark fin is no longer shark, but it is typically poultry soup. Nonetheless, the elevated levels of nourishment ingredients are not contained in the shark fin.
Even though the consumption of shark fin broth is perceived to have some customary value attachment, it is not indispensable. We should think about consuming the simulated shark fin if we constantly desire to consume shark fin soup. This follows the fact that different groups get worried distinguishing the dissimilarity from truth as soups are reasonably priced.
The appreciated principles of customary approaches to life are moderation and balance. Hence, we should take decorum and pride in augmenting our ecosystem’s stability via deciding not to devour sharks. In conclusion, in the present-day, it is a critical for us to reverse the universal deterioration of shark populace.
We have to work jointly to inspire the accord associations and fishing states to direct and manage soaring aquatic fisheries. Besides, we ought to campaign for transnational shark preservation and proclaim shark scenery reserves in kingdoms whose static waters have sundry shark population. Surely, sharks are endangered species across the globe.
Mass extinction is the large scale loss of species on earth in relatively short periods due to environmental or climatic changes. Mass extinctions have been well documented in earth’s history thanks to the study of fossils and rocks by both paleontologists and geologists. Theories have been formulated to explain different mass extinctions on record. These include asteroid impact theory, climatic change theory, and the volcanic eruptions theory.
Asteroid impact theory
This occurred 65 million years ago a large asteroid hit the earth penetrating to the earth crust scattering dust and debris to the atmosphere. Fires were ignited due to the impact of raising temperature rapidly, which incinerated millions of animals. Dust in the atmosphere blocked sunlight for years resulting in low temperatures that killed numerous warm-blooded animals that could not adapt to the low temperatures.
Global fires emitted high amounts of carbon dioxide, which increased global temperature and resulted in acid rain due to chemical changes in the atmosphere.Plants and phytoplankton that required sunlight for photosynthesis died out depleting food resources, thus affecting the food chain (Raup, 1992, p. 19). Herbivores that ate plants a starved to death, thus affecting carnivores animals this included the dinosaur.
Disease theory
This hypothesis was formulated by Dr. Robert T. Bakker in his book the dinosaur heresies. He speculated that large animals were able to cross large water bodies to reach far continents, thus bringing with them parasites and disease, and had developed some immunity to them. During close interactions, each animal succumbed to each other’s disease and small species were spared because of their inability to travel long distances.
Other scientists believe that small species were responsible for spreading parasites and diseases. Small species insects rapidly increased in population during the end of the Cretaceous period. Bugs that have been discovered contained malaria-causing parasites, and fossilized dinosaurs dung contained nematodes and protozoa (Warrick, 1998, p. 1).
Climate change theory
Volcanicity in Siberia or change in the course of the earth in orbit could have led to changes in climate, resulting in a rising in temperature globally 250 million years ago. This period known as the Permian saw 80 percent of life on land and 90 percent of the life of marine life perish. The same was also evident during the formation of continents with magma flowing over the earth’s surface.
This indubitably led to mass extinctions since a large number of animals were killed. High amounts of volcanic gases filled the atmosphere creating the greenhouse effect this led to increasing in temperature consequently resulted in melting of icecaps which led to flooding which wiped out large numbers of plants and animals on land. This theory is, perhaps the most suitable explanation for the mass extinctions of species.
This is because there is still evidence of climatic changes on earth and the effect of these changes is normally noticed by the migration of a score of animal species (Raup, 1992, p. 27). It can thus be speculated that the species that could not withstand the effects of global warming had to become extinct due to the adverse changes in climate.
Other theories
Other theories explaining mass extinctions include the belief that the climatic effects of global warming continuously created harsh living conditions for some species leading to the death of many animals.
It is also believed that animals were at one point infected with serious contagious diseases that spread vastly and caused animals of certain species to be extinct. Still, on the global warming issue, the release of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continuously led to a reduction in the levels of oxygen in the atmosphere, which was challenging to some species leading to mass extinction.
Conclusion
From the discussion above, it is apparent that there was a major cause of the mass extinctions that occurred in history. There are a variety of theories that attempt to explain the occurrence of mass extinctions, but the real cause remains a mystery (Warrick, 1998, p. 1). We should strive to avoid some of the mistakes that were allegedly committed in the past to avoid future mass extinctions.
Reference List
Raup, D. (1992). Extinction: bad genes or bad luck? New York. Barnes & Noble.
Warrick, J. (1998). Mass extinction underway, majority of biologists say. Web.
In essence, the UAE has been at the forefront of protecting endangered species from extinction and promoting an increment in their population, by putting up breeding programmes which help in multiplication of such animals.
For instance, the Breeding Centre for Endangered Arabian Wildlife (BCEAW) was one of the areas which were created to help in breeding of endangered species (Sharjah Zoo Wildlife Centre, n.d.). This paper will thus discuss various plans which have been enacted to prevent extinction of Dugong, Hawksbill Turtle, Arabian Oryx, Sand Cat and Arabian Leopard.
Dugong
The UAE is conducting intensive programmes to prevent the ultimate extinction of dugongs which have been listed as one of internationally endangered species. In this light, the Environmental Agency of Abu Dhabi (EAD) has implemented a series of programmes to realise this vision (UAE is Making Intensive Efforts to Protect Dugongs from Extinction, 2012). Since 1999, EAD has been studying behaviours of this animal in regard to breeding, movement and location among other aspects.
The identification, which lasted 4 years, helped in identifying their distribution and locations of territorial waters which have been currently protected against human destruction. This protection allows continuation of natural breeding, which essentially aids in preventing possible extinction.
Hawksbill Turtle
In light of protecting the hawksbill turtle in the UAE, the government has developed a project known as Dubai Turtle Rehabilitation project which takes care of sick and injured turtles until they recover.
These turtles are rehabilitated in Dubai Wildlife Protection Office, where their primary care is administered, and then returned to the sea (Turtle Rehabilitation in Jumeirah, n.d.). This project has helped profoundly in preventing a further decrement in the population of turtles, which could ultimately cause their extinction.
Arabian Oryx
The conservation programme of Sheikh Zayed is perhaps the most remarkable effort in regard to preventing extinction of the arabian oryx in the UAE. Zayed identified the possibility of these animals’ extinction and consequently started on a conservation programme in 1968 (Arabian Oryx Conservation Programme in Abu Dhabi, n.d.).
He ordered wardens to capture four animals that remained alive and started a breeding programme in Al Ain Zoo (Arabian Oryx Conservation Programme in Abu Dhabi, n.d.). Afterwards, he came up with another programme at Sir Bani Yas Island where three female and two male animals bred to give rise to the current thriving population amounting to more than 4,500 heads of the arabian oryx (Arabian Oryx Conservation Programme in Abu Dhabi, n.d.).
Sand Cat
Sand cats are among the critically endangered species in the UAE and other parts of the world. When attempting to prevent this animal from extinction, Al Ain Park (AWPR) has implemented a programme that applies an assistive reproduction technique (Phase II of Operation Save Sand Cat Begins, 2013).
When using it, specialists combine In Vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer (IVF-ET) to breed cats that are found in AWPR and those obtained from the USA (Phase II of Operation Save Sand Cat Begins, 2013). These embryos are then implanted into a recipient mother to facilitate multiplication of the animals. This programme has contributed profoundly in ensuring existence of sand cats and their population increment.
Arabian Leopard
Establishment Arabian Leopard in 1993 was the most evident initiative that helped in conserving the endangered arabian leopard from extinction (Photofile, n.d.). In light of this conservation, Leopard Trust intensified the conservation of the leopard mountainous habitat in order to maintain the ecosystem that sustains its food. The mentioned Leopard Trust banned all human activities in these habitats and intensified the development of captive breeding programmes which have helped to increase the leopard population.
Conclusion
It is evident that Dugong, Hawksbill Turtle, Arabian Oryx, Sand Cat and Arabian Leopard are probably the most endangered species in the UAE. In addition, it cannot be disputed that the UAE has intensely developed effective programmes that have substantially curbed possible extinction of these animals.
References
Arabian Oryx Conservation Programme in Abu Dhabi. Land, Home, and Environment. Web.
Current educational boards are abolishing music courses from curriculums nationwide to focus more importance on areas such as state and national testing standards. Music has become ignored and disregarded to make time for a new, allegedly better, standard. Ironically music is part of the foundation upon which these standards are based upon. The importance of music education and attributes that students attain from classes complete the learning package. Education does present constant change likewise our world is also constantly changing. The decline of music education is not a positive one. The extinction of music in favor of subjects more focused on national ranking tests will do more harm than good.
Time management, meditation, artistic balance and many other useful tools in life can be obtained through musical learning. For example, Native American Indians learned how to do spirit quests by meditating to the beat of a drum. A world with no music is unimaginable. It is as undesirable as a nation with no football programs. Yet musical education is being persecuted in the public education system. The valuable and important knowledge that music can impart to us is slowly being whittled away in favor of a society that focuses on standardized national achievement tests whose ability to measure a student’s true academic achievement is questionable at best.
Music is one of many passions I was blessed with learning at a young age. My grandmother gave me the fortunate opportunity to receive piano lessons at the age of five. As I grew older I sought to broaden my knowledge of music to include the guitar, clarinet and bass guitar, I even bought my own bass guitar. Though my accomplishment in the field of music does not yet include the bass guitar, I fully intend to continue my education with the bass and many other instruments. When I recall my past and present involvement with music I have nothing but a positive, pleasant and enriched learning experience. Truly, music has become a part and parcel of my soul.
History of Musical Education
When people think of music today they think of pop stars like Rihanna, rappers like Chris Brown or Country singers like Taylor Swift. Whatever we hear on the radio is what passes for music in this generation. However, music is so much more than repetitive beats and catchy choruses. Before there was ‘Umbrella’, ‘Closer’ or ‘Crazier’ there was ‘Messiah’ by Handel and “Bagatelle in A minor, WoO 59 (‘Für Elise’)” by Beethoven. Prior to that the classical era even the Greeks, Romans and even the prehistoric humans enjoyed a good song every now and then.
Classical Use of Music Education
Dating back to Plato and Aristotle, music has been long regarded as one of the “Four Pillars of Learning.” Plato quoted: “The decisive importance of education in poetry and music: rhythm and harmony sink deep into the recesses of the soul and take the strongest hold there. And when reason comes, he (the student) will greet her as a friend with whom his education has made him long familiar.” Aristotle quoted: “We become a certain quality in our characters on account of music.” Allan Bloom quoted: “Music is at the center of education, both for giving passions their due and for preparing the soul for the unhampered use of reason.”
While it might be understandable for the Athenian Greeks, like Plato and Aristotle, to have an appreciation of music because of their philosophical bent in life they were not the only Greeks who enjoyed music. The Spartans, famed for their military prowess as can be seen in the movie the 300, also had music and dancing in their Spartan city. To the aggressive and warlike Spartans music and dancing were tools to be used to help their soldiers march in cadence. Still considering the Spartans dispensed with many other activities, family life among other things, the fact that they had music emphasizes its importance to society. Halfway across the world during the same era, the first Chinese Emperor Shi Huang di found that drums could be very useful in coordinating the movements of his soldiers. A practice that would be continued centuries later up until the 19th century where armies literally marched to the beat of drums and the cavalry charges to the blaring of horns.
Aside from military applications, music was also used by ancient society in aid of their storytelling. Many native dances in Asia and Africa are actually their epic ‘origin’ tales told in the form of dance accompanied by music. For example, the tinikling in the Philippines is actually their creation myth told in a dance where the first man and woman must endure many obstacles. For some Native Americans and the Aborigine people of Australia music was the only practical way of recording their history. Without a system of writing to preserve their history music was the only way that the current generation could connect to past. While Native Americans might have significant archeological records with which to help them piece together their history, Aborigines do not have this luxury. The only way Aborigines can connect with their past now is to sit by the campfire and hear their shamans sing the long melodious dirge that is their music, music that has been passed down to them for thousands of years.
Recent uses of Music
In more recent years, music has been used as a powerful propaganda tool and as a means of promoting social order. The Nazis, The Communists and even Americans have made significant use of music to promote their particular causes. The Nazis made heavy use of marshal music to promote their ideal of a nationalist people and military strength. Communists, even today in North Korea, bombarded their people with patriotic songs to inspire obedience and loyalty. Finally, who could forget the long string of ‘hippie’ music that came out in the 1960s promoting free love and denouncing the Vietnam War. Who can forget John Lennon’s timeless classic “Imagine” and its dream of ending divisions in the world.
Modern Purposes of Music
The essential musical basics of time and tempo provide a foundation for participation in many extracurricular activities. Cheerleading dance routines critically use time and tempo to create a team consistency. All titles of the school marching band are intermeshed together using time and tempo. Activities such as these would be impossible without the fundamentals of music education. After all, music is deeply intertwined with these two forms of art. Without a musical foundation Cheerleading is just a group of boys and girls jumping around with pompoms. Without music a marching band is just a band of people making noise.
Aside from the obvious applications of musical education noted above there are many Olympic sports that find meaning and beauty when combined with an effective musical score. For example, synchronized swimming is complement and made more enticing when accompanied by a stirring musical theme. Figure skating and Gymnastics also gain aesthetic quality and become more appealing when they are done with a powerful musical score in the background. Besides aesthetics, these Olympic sports actually become easier with music because the athletes can coordinate their movements and actions better if they can time it against a strong music score. In fact these sports might well seem impossible if there was no music to go with them. It is hard to imagine how synchronized swimmers can time their movements if there was no music to follow as they are submerged in water and incapable of talking or barking out commands. To give an idea of how hard it is to do synchronized movements without the aid of music, the silent drill is one of the most difficult forms of marching that is practiced at West Point and other military academies. It is very hard because there is no drum cadence to march to and no drill sergeant barking out orders. Only the most elite and well-practiced team can perform the silent drill.
Reading, thinking and memorization skills are reinforced within music education. These abilities are also crucial life and career fundamentals that every individual uses on a daily basis. Reading ability is achieved while learning lyric or note reading. As a matter of fact some studies show that learning is actually achieved not by reading the words with the eyes by speaking the word in the head. That is when we read words we are actually saying them in our head and it is this that is absorbed by the brain and not the words themselves. As proof of this scientists has proven that listening to words is actually a faster study tool than reading. Also you can try reading out loud versus just reading and you will discover that you will retain more when you read aloud.
Thinking processes are also improved by studying the correct measures to play or observe music. Memorization of a song instills the ability to excel as memory is needed for all school studies. The same mental agility needed to remember the lines to the lyrics of a Chris Brown song can also be used to memorize the steps of the Krebs cycle or the bones. Translating dance and music into thought processes and implanting them into memory can be a very impressive tool, in the Hannah Montana episode “Time to Study’ udy ‘udy” Miley used dance moves in order to learn the parts of the bones. The song and dance number were called the bone dance. While this may appear comical it is a very practical application of music to allow students to absorb abstract concepts. A person who is well versed in music can also be very observant about his environment. After all, the same sophistication that it takes to appreciate a concerto or an opera can also be used to notice the subtle changes in another person’s feelings or in seizing up the mood of a crowd.
Perhaps the most significant in recent times, expressions of political, social, personal and entertaining emotions can be portrayed by music. Ceremonies whether religious or traditional will use music for the purpose of expressing a symbolic representation or mood. Music education can teach lessons for conveying these messages. On the socio-political aspect there have been many recent songs that emphasize a political or social message. Miley Cyrus’ “Wake Up America” tell us about the dangers that global warming will bring and how it is time for us to act lest we lose all that we have. The late Bob Marley’s songs were known to have a strong political message. The Beatles were just one of the many bands in the 60s and 70s whose songs were laced with a strong anti-war sentiment.
Even if the musicians’ music itself is not politicized, musicians are able to translate the fame they gained from their music to promote things long after their music has gone to the bargain bin. Kenny Roger’s is still selling chicken to the people even if he has already retired. Elvis is long dead but merchandise related to “the King” still sells like hotcakes.
The entertaining and mental stimulation of music is another outlet of musical power. Emotions can be expressed artfully and personally. Dancing or listening to music is a common form of culture dating to the 18th century. After the preaching of Reverend Thomas Symmes, the first singing school was created in 1717 in Boston, Massachusetts for the purposes of improving singing and music reading in the church. These singing schools gradually spread throughout the colonies (Wikipedia, 2008).
Music as entertainment
Music as a form of entertainment can never be denied. Today, a multi-billion dollar industry exists that revolves around the production and marketing of songs. While some purists bemoan the fact that many of today’s artists are frauds who can’t sing or whose music is entirely manufactured by producers It can not be denied that the music industry is a powerful business today. Some of today’s acts are criticized as being just manufactured or just all hype. For example, Hillary Duff and Vanessa Hudgens are two examples of singers who supposedly can’t really sing but are popular because of heavy support from the Disney brand. T.a.t.u. gained a wide following in 2002 because of their lesbian image, which was later disproven, despite the fact that they weren’t really very good musicians.
Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, The Pussy Cat Dolls and even the Spice Girls are criticized for using sexuality and suggestive themes to sell their music. Other acts are accused of using profanity or taboo themes, Marshall Mathers a.k.a. Eminem comes to mind, to gain popularity even if their music has no real content. Perhaps one reason why pop acts are so popular is that people are losing the ability to appreciate good music. One of the culprits for this is because music education is being deemphasized in the public education system. In other words, people don’t know what good music is anymore so they automatically assume that what they hear often on radio is good music.
Unfortunately unless something is done Francis Sparshott’s celebrated claim–“It may turn out that the music of the world are the way they are because that is the way people want them, and the reason they want them that way is that, in each case, the music is just what it is. (Jorgensen, “In the search of music education” 53)” maybe true. People may think their current regime of music is good primarily because they don’t know any better.
Decline of Music Education
As part of creativity and development many Americans will agree music is part of a well-rounded education. As a matter of fact a classical liberal arts education in college will still carry a strong helping of music education in its curriculum. However, studies prove schools are promoting more class instruction in non-music or arts-related courses. The No Child Left Behind Act signed by former President George W. Bush, holds schools accountable for student performance in only mathematics, reading, and eventually science, it is feared that the law may be compelling states and districts to neglect other important subjects (music for all, 2008). Since schools are only ranked based on their students’ performance in math, reading and science it makes perfect sense for them to focus their efforts on improving their students’ tests scores in these categories. Given that public schools often have limited resources in terms of funding, increased focus on these critical subjects automatically means that other ‘less important’ subjects will be left to share the scraps of school resources.
Based on my research of the No Child Left Behind Act or NCLB within the US Department of Education website, subjects such as math achievement, reading, science achievement and technology were only a few accounted for in the A-Z index. Therefore, presently music is not listed or projected as a future part of the NCLB plan. To make matters worse, national economic changes present challenges for music instruction as schools are making budget cuts by the elimination of programs, courses, and members of the teaching staff. This means that unless positive action is taken to reinstate the importance of music in education, schools will be forced to phase out their music programs in favor of NCLB recommended curriculum and the impending budget crunch brought about by the recession.
Unfortunately not only is music heavily deemphasized in favor of other more ‘important’ subjects it is also received very little support as a valid academic subject are. As a result, music teachers feel that they have to seek greater public endorsement for music education to be considered a legitimate subject of study. This perceived need to improve the public’s view with respect to music education has resulted in many groups which practice music advocacy.
Music Advocacy
VH1 Save the Music Foundation
The VH1 Save The Music Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring instrumental music education in American public schools, and raising awareness about the importance of music as part of each child’s complete education (VH1, 2008). Since 1997, the VH1 Save the Music Foundation has provided $43 million worth of new musical instruments to more than 1,600 public schools in more than 100 cities around the country, impacting the lives of more than 1.2 million public school students (VH1, 2008). VH1 is one of many organizations designated for musical education support. The campaign is ongoing for various organizations as the struggle for music support raises. After all, someone has to take the cudgels in support of the music education.
Prior to the rise of VH1’s campaign there was a previous campaign based on the so-called “Mozart Effect”. The campaign was based on findings that seemed to indicate that listening to Mozart’s music may induce a short-term improvement in the performance of certain kinds of mental tasks mainly spatial-temporal reasoning (Pryse-Phillips 611). In layman’s terms the campaign for the Mozart effect can be summarized thus; “Listening to Mozart makes you smarter” or “early childhood exposure to classical music has a beneficial effect on mental development”. The term was first used by Alfred A. Tomatis when he used Mozart’s music as a listening stimulus in his study on attempting to cure certain types of disorders. The approach was based on an experiment published in Nature which suggested that listening to Mozart temporarily boosted students’ IQ by 8 to 9 points (Nature 400).
The popularity of the “Mozart Effect” was so profound that on 13 January 1988 Georgia Governor Zell Miller allocated $105,000 a year to provide every Georgian child a tape or CD of classical music. Miller himself said that “No one questions that listening to music at a very early age affect the spatial-temporal reasoning that underlies math and engineering and even chess”. Simply put, in a rare twist government money was actually allocated to promote the use of music by people.
National Association for Musical Education
MENC or the National Association for Musical Education is another institutional supporter of music education. It is the world’s largest art organization program and the only association in America that addresses all aspects of music education. It boasts over 142,000 members who represent every level of teaching from preschool to graduate school. MENC was founded in 1907 and has since been advocating that every student has access to a well-balanced, comprehensive, and high-quality program of music instruction taught by qualified teachers (MENC, 2009). According to their website, MENC’s activities and resources have been largely responsible for the establishment of music education as a profession, for the promotion and guidance of music study as an integral part of the school curriculum, and for the development of the National Standards for Arts Education. (MENC, 2009)
Music Teachers National Association
Still another organization that supports music education is the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA). This organization was founded in 1876 by Theodore Presser and his sixty-two colleagues in Delaware, Ohio (MNTA, 2009). The mission vision of the Music Teacher’s National Association is to advance the value of music study and music-making to society and support the professionalism of music teachers (MTNA, 2009). The association has two programs namely; the MTNA professional certification program and the MTNA foundation fund. The professional Certification Program was established to improve the level of professionalism in the field of applied music teaching while the Foundation fund exists to support programs which financially assist teachers and students with their educational pursuits. The MTNA has 22,000 members.
Music Education’s Benefits
A solid music education is associated with those who go on to higher education. Looking at what groups may have participated more in music education shows the largest differences (Harris Interactive, 2008). Two-thirds (65%) of those with a high school education or less participated in music compared to four in five (81%) with some college education and 86 percent of those with a college education (Harris Interactive, 2008). The largest group to participate in music, however, are those with a post-graduate education as almost nine in ten (88%) of this group participated while in school (Harris Interactive, 2008). Music education is also associated with higher incomes (Harris Interactive, 2008). Simply put, a strong music education is positively associated with higher learning.
Within my own family, musicians and college attendees are limited. But even the limited numbers my family presents can have telling effect. The grandmother who encouraged me to fulfill my music education was a college graduate. If my luck holds out the only family musician and future college graduate would be me. Research, statistics and personal experience empower my beliefs to become an advocate for music education. The old adage knowledge is power, are a truth of education and a student’s future.
Both the nature of education and the nature of music are essential to a fuller understanding of what is encompassed within music education (Jorgensen, “In the search of music education”, p.3).
Education does present constant change. Surroundings in our world are also constantly changing. The change for music education however, is not foreseeing a positive one. The task of transforming music education necessitates corporate as well as individual action (Jorgensen, “Transforming Music Education” , p.47).
Music teachers are typically preoccupied with a wide array of tasks, including developing musical imagination; interpretative capacity; the ability to listen; skills in composing, improvising, and performing; and critical judgment (Jorgensen, 2003, p.130). Coupled with the fact that they are sometimes asked to substitute for other teachers they are no longer able to focus on the task of imparting musical appreciation to the students as they are too overburdened.
Changing Education Through the Arts
Just because schools are now largely ranked based on Science, Reading and Science only does not mean that music education can just be left to rot. In fact, there are some schools and organizations which promote the integration of music classes with math, English and science. Based on these beliefs it is possible that integration of music into these curricula will help the subjects support and build off each other and ultimately enhance the quality of education that the children will receive. It is hoped that by integrating music with these programs music education can play a vital role in the development of a child holistically while he undergoes his scholastic journey.
This program is already being implemented at the Kennedy Center. The program is known as “Changing Education Through the Arts” or CETA. CETA defines the arts thru integration. It seeks to find a natural connection between the multiple forms of art and areas of the school curriculum, such as science, social studies and English. The goal is to teach and assess the objectives of both the art form and the curricular subject area. It is hoped that this will allow a synergy between the focus of creating and responding to the arts as well as addressing the requirements of the curricular subject area (CETA, 2009)
Conclusion
In conclusion, Music education programs are becoming extinct and support within the education system is critical. The diversity and genres of this blessing called music are limitless as students can express themselves and obtain the complete essentials for their holistic educational experience. Without music one may not achieve their full potential goals, career or personal successes. As the “Mozart effect” demonstrated even moderate exposures to classical music may have profound effects on our intelligence. Our society is not forgiving to change and less accommodating to music programs. Society is rapidly rendering musical programs extinct by wiping it away in favor of more empirical learning. Very soon Music will be no longer taught in schools and people will just have to take radio’s word for it when they listen to music because people will know no better.
The present challenges include the loss of belief in musical education in our school systems. Expectations and standards of teaching are at the highest level they have ever been no thanks to the NCLB program which is now forcing more stress on the overburdened public education system. However, with the standards high and lower funds teachers are forced to place emphasis on where to make educational cuts. Those exemptions are part of the complete educational foundations. Music education will suffer from the lack of enrichment tools such as time, resources and educators.
Today more activities and options are available for youth. Interests of children have changed with this available array of options. Tradition may be oppressive to those without and within a social system (Jorgensen, “Transforming Music Education”, p.40). Those outside the system can benefit from the system’s change, even collapse, since they have not bought into the system or been fully accepted by it (Jorgensen, “Transforming Music Education”, p.40). Those inside the system may also be oppressed by tradition as it comes to weigh on the present and restrict their freedom of thought and movement (Jorgensen, “Transforming Music Education” p.40).
It is imperative that steps are taken to improve public support for the Music Education in public schools. The current view is that it is obsolete and no longer relevant to an increasingly more competitive world. However, this is wrong music has had a place in learning since Greek times. Even the Spartans taught music to their children. Classical Universities had music as a relevant subject even to those who would take up philosophy or science. But today we are slowly losing music in favor of more ‘important’ subjects ignoring the impact that music has had and will continue to have on students for many years to come.
References
CETA, (2009) Resources and Research. (On-Line). Web.
Harris Interactive, (2008). The Harris Poll #112, 2007. (On-Line). Web.
Jorgensen, (2003),. Transforming Music Education. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Jorgensen, R. E. (1997). In the search of music education. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
MENC, (2009) Resources and Research. (On-Line). Web.
Music For All, (2008). Resources and Research. (On-Line). Web.
Save The Music Foundation, (2008). About VH1 Save The Music Foundation. (On-line). Web.
Steele, Kenneth et al. (1999) Prelude or requiem for the ‘Mozart effect’? Nature 400.
Wikipedia Encyclopedia, (2008). 2 History of Music Education in the U.S.A. 2.1 18th century. (On-Line). Web.
William Pryse-Phillips (2003). Companion to Clinical Neurology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195159381. ,