Ecosystem Services (Rap Session Guidelines)
1. Do you believe that humans will dramatically alter virtually all of
Earth’s remaining natural ecosystems within a few decades? Why?
2. From the list of ecosystem services in this article, which ones do you
believe are we at the greatest risk of losing?
3. The author believes that lack of awareness of environmental
degradation helps to drive the conversion of natural ecosystems to
human dominated systems. Do you agree with this? If so, what can be
done about it?
4. Why would it be almost impossible to colonize a lifeless planet with
organism that could provide ecosystem services?
5. How do natural ecosystems help to stabilize the climate?
6. Do you remember the Gaia hypothesis? Does it relate to the
complexity of human services?
7. Why would the preservation of only one viable population of each
non-human species result in the collapse of the biosphere?
8. What does the complexity of hydroponic systems tell you about soil
as a resource?
9. Why does the author believe ecosystem services undervalued?
10. How effectively and how long can human technologies substitute for
ecosystem services?