After considering both sources and your knowledge of plant and animal biodiversity, how are the issues biodiversity related to the idea of threats to cultural diversity. Do you believe that governments should be actively involved (through legislation and funding) in protecting cultural diversity?
In my opinion, cultural diversity is very similar to biodiversity in many ways. Both are incredibly important aspects that can greatly affect the quality and variety of life on this planet, and both are extremely susceptible to being negatively affected by a multitude of threats. However, while the government can take some pretty clearly defined and implemented preventative measures to protect biodiversity, like reducing pollution or managing invasive species, I believe that it is a much more complicated process for the government to positively affect or protect cultural diversity. The management and protection of a culture, language, and of a people’s way of life is much more difficult to measure than the amount of frogs in a pond, and for this reason I feel that it would be sort of difficult to attempt to protect something as abstract as a group’s entire culture. That being said, I do believe that the government can take some preventative measures to at least reduce the threats caused by things under the government’s control, like the driving out of entire groups of people due to the mining of land or the deforestation of someone’s home.
In the TED Talk video, Wade Davis discussed how a significant part of the modern threats to cultural diversity are things caused by “power” and the government, like forestation and the extraction of natural resources, both of which are things that tend to uproot and displace certain groups of people, which is a potential endangerment to their culture and to their way of life. In my opinion, this is indicative of some perfect examples of how the government could help protect cultural diversity – by ceasing to do that which threatens people’s culture or environment. They could provide the people with ownership of the land they inhabit so they will be protected from being displaced by others who seek the natural resources their land may possess. The government could also educate these people about some methods that would help to record or immortalize elements of their culture and provide resources for them to do so, like film cameras to record dances or music or pen and paper to record poetry or languages.
Wade Davis explains at the conclusion of the video that he believes that politics and the government are useless in the protection of cultural diversity, and that “politicians will never accomplish anything and polemics are not persuasive”. He claims that storytelling, or education, is the main solution to the threats posed to cultural diversity. In my opinion, he is missing a point – that the world must have both culturally-educated citizens and a government dedicated to protecting the cultures of others in order to prevent people from losing their languages and cultures due to the displacement or diffusion of people. I feel as though we need both an educated population and a dedicated government in order to truly protect cultural diversity, and that we can’t really have one without the other.
In my opinion, cultural diversity is very similar to biodiversity in many ways. Both are incredibly important aspects that can greatly affect the quality and variety of life on this planet, and both are extremely susceptible to being negatively affected by a multitude of threats. However, while the government can take some pretty clearly defined and implemented preventative measures to protect biodiversity, like reducing pollution or managing invasive species, I believe that it is a much more complicated process for the government to positively affect or protect cultural diversity. The management and protection of a culture, language, and of a people’s way of life is much more difficult to measure than the amount of frogs in a pond, and for this reason I feel that it would be sort of difficult to attempt to protect something as abstract as a group’s entire culture. That being said, I do believe that the government can take some preventative measures to at least reduce the threats caused by things under the government’s control, like the driving out of entire groups of people due to the mining of land or the deforestation of someone’s home.
In the TED Talk video, Wade Davis discussed how a significant part of the modern threats to cultural diversity are things caused by “power” and the government, like forestation and the extraction of natural resources, both of which are things that tend to uproot and displace certain groups of people, which is a potential endangerment to their culture and to their way of life. In my opinion, this is indicative of some perfect examples of how the government could help protect cultural diversity – by ceasing to do that which threatens people’s culture or environment. They could provide the people with ownership of the land they inhabit so they will be protected from being displaced by others who seek the natural resources their land may possess. The government could also educate these people about some methods that would help to record or immortalize elements of their culture and provide resources for them to do so, like film cameras to record dances or music or pen and paper to record poetry or languages.
Wade Davis explains at the conclusion of the video that he believes that politics and the government are useless in the protection of cultural diversity, and that “politicians will never accomplish anything and polemics are not persuasive”. He claims that storytelling, or education, is the main solution to the threats posed to cultural diversity. In my opinion, he is missing a point – that the world must have both culturally-educated citizens and a government dedicated to protecting the cultures of others in order to prevent people from losing their languages and cultures due to the displacement or diffusion of people. I feel as though we need both an educated population and a dedicated government in order to truly protect cultural diversity, and that we can’t really have one without the other.
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