Ecosystems is defined as a system formed by " the interaction of a community of organisms with their environment." Human beings, because of their hierarchy in evolution and the food chain, have profound impact on the Earth ecosystem that in turn can dictate the fate of mankind, in the long run.

What's in a name?

Initially, we wanted to name this section "Nature and Wildlife". However, the phrase, "nature and wildlife", tends to romanticize the environment and our interaction with the world we live in. "Nature and wildlife" conjure distant places that we visit when we want to get away from the routine of our day-to-day lives.

It does not capture the complex interrelationships of the issues and topics that we would want to integrate in this website. For example, genetically manufactured organisms (GMOs) is a man-made creation but can have profound impact on nature and wildlife. The same is true of many environmental issues, like antibiotics, ozone depletion, etc.

Ecosystems, includes not only the "nature and wildlife" that we long to escape to sometimes, but also the very environment of our daily lives -- the cities, the farms, the monotonous surbarbia, the factories, the schools, the workplace, etc. In fact, because of the primacy of man in the evolutionary scheme, the things we do in these environments where we spend most of our lives have profound impact on the "nature and wildlife" that we romanticize, and expect to be there, always, when we want to escape and commune with nature.