Post #3- Reflection on excerpt from Tomorrow's Biodiversity by Shiva.

      This excerpt contained a wealth of information. Most of which were only slightly opinionated facts and figures. An example of to what I'm referring was when the author mentions a potato famine in Ireland from 1845-1846. She says the famine is the sole cause of as many as 2 million deaths from 1841-1851. That would mean that there started a famine prior to the potato shortage. What that means to me is that the author wanted to include deaths 4 years before the potato shortage because the great numbers would help stretch the truth and make for more alarming figures.
      Other than a little stretching of the truths in this excerpt, I did attain more of an understanding of Gaia, Biodiversity, an approach to Biodiversity: Reductionist, and just how much life is involved in sustaining humans.

I thought I had somewhat of an understanding of how much life we humans co-exist with but the numbers and different types of life that were found in only one cubic meter of soil in a forest blew my mind. It takes so much bacteria, fungi, worms, algae, insects, and mites to break down toxins and produce fertile soil that we all depend very much on.
            The author really wants to educate the reader about what is Biodiversity, the importance of Biodiversity, the causes and effects of a lack of diversity, ultimately motivate the reader to learn more about biodiversity, and possibly get more people to change their ways of thinking.
            Even though I am an Environmental Engineer major, I found this excerpt to motivate me in the direction of the writers intentions, despite many grammatical errors, and exaggerations. I would like to have seen more current and up to date facts and figures. Overall, a good read for anyone.
~Max G.