BIOL 469 Lecture Notes - Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Human Overpopulation, Ecosystem Services
8 Feb 2013
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Document Summary
Many benefits are irreplaceable or the technology necessary to replace them are very expensive. Potable fresh water can be provided by desalinating seawater but only at a great cost. Rapidly expanding human population has modified earth"s ecosystems to increase their ability to provide some of the goods and services it needs these modifications have contributed to human well-being and economic development. Short-term increases in some ecosystem goods have come at the cost of the long-term degradation of others. Damage from tsunami of 2004 would have been less if the mangrove forests that protect the coasts had had not been cut down. Hurricane katrina would not have caused as much flooding if the wetlands surrounding area had been left intact. Millennium ecosystem assessment a project that involved more than a thousand scientists and managers worldwide to provide a global assessment of earth"s ecosystems, determine trends in the services they provide and assess their importance to human well-being.
