Importance of living beings

All living beings, from bacteria to man, are important for maintaining ecological balance. Although, individually speaking, each one has its specific function and value in the role they play in the environment; the removal of any species from nature can trigger a series of problems.

Basically, it is possible for the planet to "exist" without the presence of any living being, but this existence is would be reduced to an accumulation of water, earth and rocks that do not grow, do not die, they are simply there subject to the time. For life to exist, life as such is necessary, and this is precisely reflected in living beings.

A living being is defined as one that has:

– Structure organized by one (unicellular) or more (multicellular) cells;
– Characteristic chemical composition formed by a small portion of organic substances together with inorganic substances;
– Energetic metabolism necessary for vital functions;
– Cell growth;
– Reproduction and inheritance;

– Response to various stimuli;
– Ability to evolve and adaptation to the environment.

We can say that there is an unimaginable number of living beings and among the thousands that we know of, there is the need to classify them to facilitate their study, which maintains a hierarchical line based on the characteristics common structural and anatomical characteristics of each group (Domain – Kingdom – Phylum – Class – Order – Family – Genus – Species) and uses the scientific name to simplify species recognition anywhere in the world. world.

It is important to note that the most common form of classification accepted today is according to the kingdom, comprising five large groups: Monera - Protista - Fungi - Plantae - Animalia.

As we said before, life is necessary for life to exist and the beginning of everything, scientifically speaking, dates from the formation of the earth. primitive and with it organic molecules that together with a sequence of probable or improbable chemical reactions allowed the appearance of the first being alive. This leap from the chemical world to the biological world is not entirely clear, but it is known that thousands of million years for the evolution to the form of life closest to the one we know today with Homo sapiens as protagonist.

Relationship between living beings

To understand how living things are important to each other, either by use or by biological necessity, we need to understand that the maintenance of life is made with a complex set of non-living elements (water, sun, nutrients) and living elements obtained in nature.

As an example of this relationship, let's analyze plants, being essential for any ecosystem. Plants are food for a number of animals and, at the same time, have the ability to produce their own food from a process whose result involves the release of oxygen to the atmosphere. Animals need oxygen (consumed through respiration) which is used to maintain life processes. The product of animal respiration is carbon dioxide, which is the fuel that plants absorb during the day to carry out the process of photosynthesis. And so one is contributing to the life of the other.

Ecological imbalance and extinction

The year 2020 brought to light the debate on the risks of predatory use of nature and its consequences. The possibility that the COVID-19 virus arose from human contact with native bats living in untouched caves is a warning that ecological imbalance among its many negative effects, it can facilitate the emergence of new diseases, it shows us the importance of looking at nature as the Expansion of our own home.

When we use it in a very invasive way or destroy an animal's habitat, we start a cycle of changes whose consequences may be the extinction of a species that not only represents the loss of biodiversity but it affects the entire chain of the biome to which it is inserted. We can say that one less animal is one less variety of food for another and consequently deregulates this biome, which It can lead to the extinction or excessive growth of another species and little by little everything turns into a ball of snow. It is worth noting that it is not because an extinction has not visibly affected a environment in question that everything will be the same. Not all the consequences can be predicted in advance and, in the best of cases, we have a sad loss of genetic inheritance and, in a more pessimistic scenario, a pandemic.

Another possibility is the change of habitat to be able to survive this destruction of the environment and again we have the entire chain affected with changes in the eating habits, the spread between humans of solitary diseases in nature and again in a bad scenario the unleashing of a pandemic.

Preserving the life of all living beings is essential for the survival of human beings and the sooner this understanding is disseminated, the better for everyone.