Cole Burgess

Schaefer

ANTH-2281

April 23, 2017

Global Problems, Local Solutions

Some of the major global problems that humans must face today include; habitat

destruction, loss of biodiversity and global climate change. The main thing that all of these

threats have in common is that the severity of each is only elevated by human actions. Without

human intervention, there would be essentially no habitat destruction (besides that of natural

events), meaning not as severe a loss of biodiversity. Biodiversity is the variety of life in the

world or in a habitat or ecosystem. Therefore, a loss of biodiversity would entail that too many

species are going extinct leaving the earth with less diverse ecosystems. To correct this issue

humans need to work on their conservation techniques. This means that humans would have to

put action towards conserving the ecosystems around them and all the plants and animals within

them to maintain proper biodiversity. Maintaining biodiversity as well as keeping stopping

destruction of habitat would be referred to as sustainability. This is because taking these actions

would help to ensure that no further damage is done to species or their homes and therefore

sustaining the level which they are already at. For any of these steps forward in conserving and

sustaining our global ecosystem to be successful humans need to act with more environmentally

responsible behavior. Each and every individual needs to act with this ERB within their own

communities if progress is every hoped to be made towards solving this issue. ERB refers to

actions that reflect caring about and for the natural environment, often involving resource
conservation. One of the most heavily impacted types of animals biodiversity is that of

monkeys, lemurs, and tarsiers (primates). The major threats facing these creatures a causing this

biodiversity loss are all human inflicted, habitat destruction being the leading cause followed by

over exploration and hunting. A third to a half of all primate species are endangered because of

overexploitation and habitat destruction. As an estimate, it's maybe at 42% right now, but it'll go

up in the future (http://www-personal.umich.edu/~phyl/anthro/conserve.html). This problem

needs to be corrected quickly or the earth will end up with a remarkable un-diverse group of

primates inhabiting it.

At the Salt Lake Community College in Utah students are offered courses in the field of

life sciences that teach a great deal about humans connection to the natural world. On the SLCC

website under the description of the Life Sciences field it states, the fundamental objective is to

provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary for informed and responsible

citizenship (http://catalog.slcc.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=6&poid=1323). This is a very

beneficial program to offer because it teaches students modern methods of conservation and

sustainability that the world needs. They are taught about the issues that our ecosystems are

being faced with and then have to use their knowledge gained about the natural world to come up

with solutions. Along with this field of study offered at SLCC the school itself is taking

responsibility in becoming more sustainable and leaving a smaller carbon footprint. For example,

5 major campus parking lot lights have been upgraded to save approximately 600,000 kWH/year

of energy along with many other lights saving even more energy per year. They have also

upgraded all of the water outputs to low flow faucet aerators 0.5 GPM to help conserve water.

This is only two of the many eco upgrades that have been made at the various SLCC campuses

around Utah. The full list is at https://i.slcc.edu/facilities/sustainability.aspx

 Salt Lake City, although small, is growing and becoming more and more conscious of the

environment and the effect that the citizens within it have on it. There are many programs that

have started in SLC within the last 10 years that are making progress towards a greener city and

therefore greener planet. One of these programs that actually encompasses many more eco

programs is called SLCgreen. It is comprised of award winning environmental programs that

continue to help us conserve resources, reduce pollution, slow climate change and ensure a

healthy sustainable future for Salt Lake City (https://www.slcgreen.com). One of the programs

under SLCgreen is the Salt Lake City Open Space Lands Program and their purpose is to help

maintain vast amount of natural lands in SLC. Not only do they maintain the land itself but they

also practice sustainability for native vegetation, water quality and aquatic and terrestrial wildlife

and their habitat. Taking this step in sustaining the ecosystems that we have in our own city is

just one piece to solving our global ecological issues. The water in Salt Lake is sustained and

conserved by the Department of Public Utilities. They protect SLCs environment by maintaining

high-quality drinking water, managing flood control and treating wastewater to EPA standards

(www.slcgov.com/utilities). To reduce Salt Lakes carbon footprint as a whole they are beginning

to install electric vehicle charging stations. Electric vehicles are one of the newer and very

promising solutions to global climate change as a whole. For Salt Lake to take this progressive

step forward really shows their support for electric cars and therefore shows their support for the

conservation and sustainability of the global climate.

Utah has never been referred to as the most progressive state in the U.S, however it does

have a lot of organizations pushing to change that view. Just like for Salt Lake with the

SLCgreen program, Utah has an overarching organization that holds many others within it. One

of the many beneficial organizations is CSA Utah and their goal is to provide a one-stop
recourse for those interested in Community Supported Agriculture

(http://www.sustainutah.org/orgs/csa-utah/). By providing this recourse to people interested in

local agriculture they are able to teach them the most efficient ways to use land for farming as

well as info on looking for fresh local food. Helping to encourage people to buy local and even

grow their own produce is very beneficial because it can drastically cut down on food waste,

pesticide use and food delivery. Cutting down on the amount of driving that is required to deliver

produce would be extremely helpful because it would make Utahs air cleaner. Breath Utah is

actually the organization that is responsible for knowing the various aspects of Utahs air. They

are seeking solutions to Utahs air problem by looking at the effects that it has on citizens health

as well as the overall quality of the air. They accomplish this by focusing on education outreach,

multi-stakeholder collaboration, and policy change. The air quality in Utah is one of the lowest

out of all of the U.S states and Salt Lake City is the number one lowest out of all of the Cities.

This is a very large issue especially due to the fact that the air quality is having an impact on

peoples health and therefore their overall wellbeing. With organizations like these two and many

others within the state of Utah, the future of our local ecosystems looks much brighter.

Although all of these steps taken by school, city and state seem very small scale in

comparison to global issues, they have an enormous effect. These practices are needed right now

and will be even more crucially as the human race advances and evolves. The global issues that

we face today such as biodiversity loss, habitat destruction and global climate change are only

going to worsen if action is not taken by every individual around the world. They are global

issues so they have global effects meaning that they will affect every person on this earth and

therefore people need to take responsibility for their actions and push for conservation. Major

issues such as biodiversity loss and lack of conservation and sustainability are threating to all
living beings, however they are taking a serious toll on primates. Primates are one of the most

heavily impacted animals by human action, the most devastating being habitat destruction. It is

important to discuss methods of conservation and sustainability in a primatology class because it

teaches students how they can do their part in their own community to reduce the loss of

biodiversity. After researching the practices and procedures that SLCC, Salt Lake and Utah as a

whole are taking to aid in the global ecological crisis it made me realize that there were some

simples actions I could take as an everyday citizen to help. Some behaviors I could change

would be upgrading appliances/lights etc. around my house to make them more energy and water

conscious. I can also avoid driving as much as possibly reduce the amount of CO2 emissions that

I am putting into the air as well as buying local produce and even growing my own.

References:

Primate Conservation. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2017. http://www-

personal.umich.edu/~phyl/anthro/conserve.html
"SLCC Catalog." Program of Study: Life Sciences (LS) - Salt Lake Community College -

Acalog ACMS. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.

http://catalog.slcc.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=6&poid=1323
SLCgreen | Salt Lake City's Sustainability Department. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.

https://www.slcgreen.com
"CSA Utah." Sustain Utah. N.p., 16 Sept. 2012. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.

http://www.sustainutah.org/orgs/csa-utah/