Biodiversity in our hands

I am not talking about the parasites that might be in our hands, cause that's wierd and gross.

No I'm talking about human influence on biodiversity. Notice I said influence NOT impact. Because saying that humans reduce biodiversity, human presence is bad for the environment, or the world would be better without humans are all TOTAL MYTHS!

Take Crete.
Indigenous people there practicing agrarian livelihoods like goat, chestnut, and olive production in complex systems that they have mastered over hundreds if not thousands of generations, actually increase the biodiversity of the areas where they practice (Sievert, 2006) Two contrasting examples from the traditional land use of Crete are a Cretian National Park, and industrial olive plantations in Crete.

The traditional ag. of Crete can be considered a specialized regime of disturbances of various types, intensities, periodicities and scales. There are many species in Crete that are adapted to this regime, and without it they are incapable of living in their usual way. The grazing of goats and the picking of fruits and planting and burning that the Cretians practice are in fact a sort of ecological garden that they can subsist on, using most of its parts in some way. The goats grazing has caused adaptations in plants to grow low, to be thorny, or poisonous. In the shade of the chestnut trees there grow the medicinal and food plants that the Cretians use. And birds inhabit and pollinate the trees as well. Its a complex heterogenous system. Heterogeneity being a key factor for biodiversity it isn't surprising that this system leads to high diversity.

If this regime of disturbances is removed we see immediate changes. The park was made. The people were kicked out. Part of Crete grew into a forest. The plants that were suppressed by goat grazing could now reach the canopy and this shade resulted in the doom of many plants used to the exposed sun of the island. In this scenario the seed sources were vastly changed as not oaks have a much greater ability to reproduce for example. Now the park is subject to forest fires and the Greeks need to send their park managers to America to learn how to fight fires because they were not a typical disturbance present on the island before.

The other example is industrial olive production. Again the traditional means of living were disrupted, and everything changed. Pesticides and herbicides caused there to be straight rows of trees with bare soil between them. birds steer clear, insects are less common. Forget about those cool medicinal plants. Biodiversity goes down.

I guess it isn't people that reduce biodiversity... Its stupid greedy people who insist on living outside their means.

There are other examples of this in Africa, with the Bushmen, (San? Xan?) the people of mozambique who live in an interesting place with unique conditions. These indigenous people only know how to live in this one area and no where else, and similarly there is no one else who knows how to live in this area. The women can find mud fish, hibernating under solid clay, just by walking on the clay! (Laurie Ashley, 2006) look into it. the facts are out there.

Indigenous people need to be left alone and allowed to practice their traditional ways. So Hydro Quebec can go to hell and so can Yellowstone National Park, Devil's Tower rec area, and the whole damn nation. Canada too! We're all invasive exotics in America! And our effect isn't caused by our species, but our imported culture.