To the next president,

I am Lily Camp. I’m writing about animal extinction because it is an important topic to discuss. Animals are going extinct and without animals, humans would die. This is important because some of the nutrients we need are from things we can’t eat, but animals can eat. If we can’t get those needed nutrients, how can the human body survive? How would we adapt to not having animals that we depended on before they went extinct?

Animal extinction is an important topic because about 99% of currently threatened species are at risk because of human activities. These are mostly activities that drive habitat loss, the introduction of exotic animal species, and global warming. All three of these are very bad things, in my opinion. And because of animal extinction, organizations like the ESA strives to revive (or recover) species from the endangered list by restoring their health until the help is no longer needed.

This impacts me because, personally, I love animals.  And I will speak for all animal lovers; it hurts all of us when we see a species get harmed to the point of endangerment.  I remember once, at the John Ball Zoo, a local zoo in my city, where I learned that elephants were going extinct because of poaching. This made me really upset because I never realized how much people would miss the animals when they finally are gone. And I believe this is human error.

As many as 30-50% of all species on Earth are possibly heading towards extinction by mid-century. Organizations like the W.W.O., who focuses on saving certain species that help sustain other species. The W.W.O. protects wildlife like pandas, rhinos, whales, marine turtles, primates, polar bears, and big cats. Protecting endangered species is a good thing because we will never know how much we could depend on an animal until it goes extinct. And something tells me that we shouldn’t risk that.

There are some natural causes of animal extinction. These include climatic heating and cooling, changes in sea levels and currents, asteroids and cosmic radiation, acid rain, disease or epidemic, and the spread of invasive species. The endangered species act of 1973 (ESA) protects registered endangered species by removing them from the “take list”. This makes it unlawful to harm, poach, trap, shoot, capture, or attempt any action to the species.

Stop poaching animals. Stop letting the loss of the animals we need and love get out of hand. Put a stop to it, please. Killing off animals can really mess up things for us. An example is the food chain, killing off one animal at the bottom can throw off the entire thing. We can’t have that happening.

Sincerely,

Lily