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TechnoratiExtinction Looms, Study Says
GENEVA - Governments are failing to stem a rapid decline in biodiversity that is now threatening extinction for almost half the world's coral reef species, a third of amphibians, and a quarter of mammals, a leading environmental group warned today.
![[Almost half the world's coral reef species face the threat of extinction, according to an environmental group's report. (Science) ]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/coral-2.jpg "coral-2.jpg")
"Life on Earth is under serious threat,'' the International Union for Conservation of Nature said in a 155-page report that describes the past five years of a losing battle to protect species, natural habitats, and geographical regions from the devastating effects of man.
IUCN, the producer of the world's Red List of endangered animals, analyzed more than 44,000 species to test government pledges earlier this decade to halt a global loss in biodiversity by 2010.
That target will not be met, the Gland, Switzerland-based body said, describing the prospects of coral reefs as the most alarming. It also said slightly more amphibians, mammals, and birds were in peril compared with five years ago, with species most prized by humans for food or medicine as disproportionately threatened.
"Biodiversity continues to decline, and next year no one will dispute that,'' said Jean-Christophe Vie, the report's senior editor. "It's happening everywhere.''
Vie said biodiversity threats need to be highlighted and combated, even at a time when many world leaders are preoccupied by economic recession. Unlike markets and debts, extinction is an irreversible element of today's "wildlife crisis.''
He urged governments to usher in major changes to society, such as reducing energy and overall consumption, redesigning cities, and reassessing the environmental consequences of globalization - producing goods in one part of the world and sending them thousands of miles to be sold.
Vie said climate change only threatened to make the situation worse.
In Europe, "about 50 percent of species are under threat or vulnerable,'' said Barbara Helfferich, a European Union spokeswoman. "Habitats are shrinking and a lot needs to be done. We are doing a lot, but it's not enough as promised to halt biodiversity loss.''
12 Comments so far
Show AllI'm sure that all that's needed is a good speech by Obama, a worldwide gathering of politicians to discuss the matter, and a huge amount of public money to fund a special committee that will look into things......and report back to us in 50 years......
O' the cognitive dissonance, deafening howl
the grind of what we know versus what we see
how can a hockey player be worth twenty million and
a species worth nothing
how can so many eyes turn to the faux pas of an idiot starlet
and not notice the burning deck of the life-raft all around?
the trivial is raised to great heights
and the crucial begs for attention
a silent siren rages and rips
I feel like a mime who wants a megaphone
well said.............
it's not just the hockey players..........tennis, golf, racing and on and on and on.
THE DAY
When oh when is the day going to come? When will the stillness of a starry night seep into this ugly wound that travels down a mountain of shame and greed that belies any claim of humanity or care?
Is the day of the heart so deep in the realm of the money changers that a child should die than poisons should stop on their path to the polluting smoke stack?
Where is the day of the sacredness that was the home; the home of all who believed in Bill and a Constitution? A home for sharing and not to tear.
Why is the day, oh such a long day, get not a rest as life and land cry and plead for this day to end? Yet is the day of doom pursued with vim and vigor for that 30 pieces of silver; as to any animal, vegetable or mineral besides that black angel of death there will be no future to bear.
Without an environment there will be no life. Tony 7/2/2009
Did anybody see Earth 2100 on ABC? I thought that program did a great job and interviewed the people who are most likely to know where things are headed between now and 2030, 2050, and 2100.
E.O. Wilson, Lester Brown, NCAR scientists, and James Lovelock are infinitely more qualified to talk about AGW than Senator Inhofe or Rush Limbaugh and yet the Republican need to maintain runaway, unregulated, cutthroat capitalism is so great that they'd rather destroy the climate, the ecosystems, and the web of life itself than put limits on their economic activities designed to deliver short term gains for a few numbnuts at the top.
Barring some kind of global epiphany, we're about to bankrupt nature which will trigger the die off that others speak of. Mass extinctions happened in Earth's past. We're seeing the beginnings of the next one. Down, down, down, it goes, where it stops nobody knows.
are there any computer generated 'predictions' about our future given all the information we have now? like the ones that have been done about the universe? i wonder............
It has been my contention for many years now, that the only hope for the other life forms on this planet is a 'mass die off' of human beings.
This is not an extinction, but a mass die off.
Until relatively recently (10-12K years ago) human beings were able to live in harmony with the environment. The double inventions of 'agriculture and religion'---spelled the end of humanity----and unfortunately countless other life forms.
Religions gave humanity the concept that they were 'superior' and agriculture gave them the 'calories'---to exert the superiority. Humanity would be loath to give their 'religions up' and those 'religions would cease to exist without followers, and the followers need the agriculture to live.
The elimination of so many human beings would be the only logical answer, and perhaps that is what is on the 'schedule' since without a viable environment the human beings would die off----and take the 'religions with them'.
If you are another species---say 'amen'.
The elimination of so many human beings would be the only logical answer, and perhaps that is what is on the 'schedule' since without a viable environment the human beings would die off----and take the 'religions with them'.
No problem with the post, but... A wise man once said: "Logic is an organized way of going wrong with confidence."
Not all religions are as you describe. You are describing, primarily, just protestant christianity.
Many religions teach humility and harmony. Ever heard of Buddhism?
As I've said before: the species homo sapiens resembles most is yeast. Both will mindlessly consume what's available in their environment and excrete it as waste until it finally poisons them.
The difference is that yeast probably don't know any better. Homo sapiens claims to know better and may even be able to observe and floridly comment on their own self-destruction but, like yeast, it still won't be able to do anything about it.
This is the paramount issue of our times (of all time) and yet mainstream politicians don't talk about it. They seem to think it can be put on the backburner. Keeping the upward spiral of consumption going faster and faster is what concerns them. The human race will perish due to a collective mental illness. Unfortunately, we'll take down most of the really interesting creatures with us.
JohnSavage July 2nd, 2009 10:07 am.....Not a mental illness...just GREED, INDIFFERENCE AND AVARICE. No pill or therapy for those...just a lack of connection with your Universal soul.
I have called us a virus. BUT, I doubt a virus reasons and thinks in a way we recognize. We, as a supposedly thinking reasoning species, have NO excuse.