4.7.12.C.

EFFECTS OF THREATENED, ENDANGERED OR EXTINCT SPECIES
1. __Food and Drink__ - Although about 80 percent of our food supply comes from just 20 kinds of plants, humans use at least 40,000 species of plants and animals a day (Wikipedia, http://www.wikipedia.org/, May 11 2008). People across the globe depend on these species for different means such as food, shelter, and clothing. There is a plentiful reserve of potential food products that are fit for human consumption. However, with the extinction rate increasing, this reserve is becoming smaller and smaller. Crop diversity helps the ecological system recover when a major species is attacked by a disease or otherwise. 2. __Medicine__ - Many medical drugs are derived from a variety of plants and microorganisms. In the majority of cases, drugs cannot be synthesized in a laboratory, but instead are extracted from compounds found in plants, animals, and microorganisms. Many more species offer research to develop new drugs and medicines. 3. __Industrial Material__ - Humans use certain organisms to create materials such as fibers, dyes, resins, gums, adhesives, rubber and oil. Once again there are many species that can be manufactured into different materials that benefit humans that have yet to be discovered.
 * __Benefits to Humans of Diversity in Ecosystems__**

Each species affects others whether directly related or not. This idea does not exclude humans. As different species become endangered or extinct, the species around it are affected as well. This creates a domino effect as each species affects the next. Our species will be one of the last to be affected due to our population size, variety of diet, and production of these substances. However, as certain species become endangered or even extinct, certain things in our everyday life will become more sparse.

This directly affects what is called the supply and demand principle. These two are inversely related. As the one gets bigger the other gets smaller and visa-versa. For example: if the salmon population became endangered, there is less of it to feed to the population. This means that the demand for salmon will go up, which means so will the price.

__ex. of endangered/extinct species effect on humans__ - The Irish potato blight that occured in 1846 caused the deaths of approximately one million people and the migration of yet another million. Other examples of human depressions due to endangered or extinct species of agriculture are the European wine industry collapse in the late ninetenth century and the US Southern Corn Blight epidemic of 1970.

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