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Anonymous
>>137355 Well, I'm sure you could say that in most cases, any one single species isn't crucial to the overall functioning of an ecosystem. I doubt there is any one species that if you took it out, the whole thing would fall apart, even in the case of "keystone species" which are as central of species as one can get.
Instead, every species contributes something to an ecosystem, somehow, like each individual cell in an organism or each block in a pyramid. And once you remove one, a slippery slope forms, and other species are more vulnerable, like unravelling a rug by tugging on a single strand.
Yes, species do die out on their own, their environment changes but they can't (not fast enough at least), but that doesn't justify wanton and careless human-caused extinctions which could be avoided. And that also doesn't invalidate saving species which were in danger because of human activity. I think you'll find the vast majority of conservation efforts are aimed at species that are threatened by human activity in their native range. And that is why we do it.
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