Extinction Is The Question

3 Pages 835 Words

In the argument, “Why worry about extinction,” David M. Armstrong says that humans are accelerating the extinction rate, while Norman D. Levine argues that extinction is just the course of nature. Armstrong teaches science for nonscientists at the University of Colorado and has written several books on the mammals and ecology of the rocky mountain region. Levine is a professor at the college of veterinary medicine and agricultural experiment station, University of Illinois. He also has a strong research interest in human ecology.
Armstrong states that humans are accelerating extinction and he believes that evolution is the process of change in the gene pools. He also believes when one gene pool becomes reproductively independent of another, a new species has formed. Armstrong says, “Extinction is a failure to adapt to change,” and, “Extinction is a natural process.” In time, Armstrong feels all species will become extinct due to the given facts he possesses. I agree when he says, “Habitat change is the most important cause of endangerment and extinction,” because it is. When you tear down the rainforest with lots of living species that can no longer live in their environment, it kills them off and fast. They no longer have a home or a place to breed and soon the thousands of species die off. And so he asks himself, “‘Does posterity matter?’” and “‘do my children deserve a life as rich, with as much opportunity, as mine?’”
Armstrong uses more facts than opinion. These facts that have been studied and recorded by scientists who have done lots of research in order to find the correct answer to evolution. Some of these facts state; the average lifespan of species from 1 million to 10 million years and that there are only 1-10% of species that evolved since life began. Other fact that exist are those of the extinction rates and how humans have pushed the extinction rate by cutting down forest for the anim...