I quote from the Washington Post, April 21, 1998: A majority of the nation's biologists are convinced that a "mass extinction" of plants and animals is underway that poses a major threat to humans in the next century, yet most Americans are only dimly aware of the problem, a poll says.
The rapid disappearance of species was ranked as one of the planet's gravest environmental worries, surpassing pollution, global warming and the thinning of the ozone layer, according to the survey of 400 scientists commissioned by New York's American Museum of Natural History.
The poll's release yesterday comes on the heels of a groundbreaking study of plant diversity that concluded than at least one in eight known plant species is threatened with extinction. Although scientists are divided over the specific numbers, many believe that the rate of loss is greater now than at any time in history.
"The speed at which species are being lost is much faster than any we've seen in the past -- including those [extinctions] related to meteor collisions," said Daniel Simberloff, a University of Tennessee ecologist and prominent expert in biological diversity who participated in the museum's survey. [Note: the last mass extinction caused by a meteor collision was that of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago.]
Most of his peers apparently agree. Nearly seven out of 10 of the biologists polled said they believed a "mass extinction" was underway, and an equal number predicted that up to one-fifth of all living species could disappear within 30 years. Nearly all attributed the losses to human activity, especially the destruction of plant and animal habitats.
Among the dissenters, some argue that there is not yet enough data to support the view that a mass extinction is occurring. Many of the estimates of species loss are extrapolations based on the global destruction of rain forests and other rich habitats.
Among non-scientists, meanwhile, the subject appears to have made relatively little impression. Sixty percent of the laymen polled professed little or no familiarity with the concept of biological diversity, and barely half ranked species loss as a "major threat."
The scientists interviewed in the Louis Harris poll were members of the Washington-based American Institute of Biological Sciences, a professional society of more than 5,000 scientists. [End quote.]
We hear much talk about ?sustainability,? altering our actions in such a way that we will be able to continue our activities indefinitely, ?in harmony with nature.? But there has been precious little indication that any kind of sustainability is coming about, even though the flip side of the sustainability coin is, by definition, extinction. Most people I know, listen to, or read about, do not seem to grasp, or want to grasp, this reality, let alone the magnitude of the situation. They are too busy jogging on the treadmill of daily life, catching up on the latest ?reality show,? or yakking on a cell phone. Or so it appears to me.
We advertise cars and motor homes like children?s toys, we build huge new houses miles away from everything people need to live, we hop on planes and dump thousands of gallons of jet fuel into the atmosphere without batting an eye, we shop till we drop, we leave untold millions of kilowatt-hog tvs and other electric appliances running day and night, we build more and more highways to nowhere, we root for a certifiable lunatic for president (or allow our Supreme Baboons to appoint one); and in our blood lust, charge off to war on less evidence than a junior high teacher might expect in a science experiment, or than a judge might demand in small claims court.
Do I jest? Do I make things up to scare you?
Reuters News, Mar 20, 2006, Humans spur worst extinctions since dinosaurs:
Humans are responsible for the worst spate of extinctions since the dinosaurs and must make unprecedented extra efforts to reach a goal of slowing losses by 2010, a U.N. report said on Monday.
Habitats ranging from coral reefs to tropical rainforests face mounting threats, the Secretariat of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity said in the report, issued at the start of a March 20-31 U.N. meeting in Curitiba, Brazil.
"In effect, we are currently responsible for the sixth major extinction event in the history of earth, and the greatest since the dinosaurs disappeared, 65 million years ago," said the 92-page Global Biodiversity Outlook 2 report?.
A rising human population of 6.5 billion was undermining the environment for animals and plants via pollution, expanding cities, deforestation, introduction of "alien species" and global warming, it said.
It estimated the current pace of extinctions was 1,000 times faster than historical rates, jeopardizing a global goal set at a 2002 U.N. summit in Johannesburg "to achieve, by 2010, a significant reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss."
"Unprecedented additional efforts' will be needed to achieve the 2010 biodiversity target at national, regional and global levels," it said. The report was bleaker than a first U.N. review of the diversity of life issued in 2001. [End article.]
The rapid disappearance of species was ranked as one of the planet's gravest environmental worries, surpassing pollution, global warming and the thinning of the ozone layer, according to the survey of 400 scientists commissioned by New York's American Museum of Natural History.
The poll's release yesterday comes on the heels of a groundbreaking study of plant diversity that concluded than at least one in eight known plant species is threatened with extinction. Although scientists are divided over the specific numbers, many believe that the rate of loss is greater now than at any time in history.
"The speed at which species are being lost is much faster than any we've seen in the past -- including those [extinctions] related to meteor collisions," said Daniel Simberloff, a University of Tennessee ecologist and prominent expert in biological diversity who participated in the museum's survey. [Note: the last mass extinction caused by a meteor collision was that of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago.]
Among the dissenters, some argue that there is not yet enough data to support the view that a mass extinction is occurring. Many of the estimates of species loss are extrapolations based on the global destruction of rain forests and other rich habitats.
Among non-scientists, meanwhile, the subject appears to have made relatively little impression. Sixty percent of the laymen polled professed little or no familiarity with the concept of biological diversity, and barely half ranked species loss as a "major threat."
The scientists interviewed in the Louis Harris poll were members of the Washington-based American Institute of Biological Sciences, a professional society of more than 5,000 scientists. [End quote.]
We hear much talk about ?sustainability,? altering our actions in such a way that we will be able to continue our activities indefinitely, ?in harmony with nature.? But there has been precious little indication that any kind of sustainability is coming about, even though the flip side of the sustainability coin is, by definition, extinction. Most people I know, listen to, or read about, do not seem to grasp, or want to grasp, this reality, let alone the magnitude of the situation. They are too busy jogging on the treadmill of daily life, catching up on the latest ?reality show,? or yakking on a cell phone. Or so it appears to me.
We advertise cars and motor homes like children?s toys, we build huge new houses miles away from everything people need to live, we hop on planes and dump thousands of gallons of jet fuel into the atmosphere without batting an eye, we shop till we drop, we leave untold millions of kilowatt-hog tvs and other electric appliances running day and night, we build more and more highways to nowhere, we root for a certifiable lunatic for president (or allow our Supreme Baboons to appoint one); and in our blood lust, charge off to war on less evidence than a junior high teacher might expect in a science experiment, or than a judge might demand in small claims court.
Do I jest? Do I make things up to scare you?
Reuters News, Mar 20, 2006, Humans spur worst extinctions since dinosaurs:
Humans are responsible for the worst spate of extinctions since the dinosaurs and must make unprecedented extra efforts to reach a goal of slowing losses by 2010, a U.N. report said on Monday.
Habitats ranging from coral reefs to tropical rainforests face mounting threats, the Secretariat of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity said in the report, issued at the start of a March 20-31 U.N. meeting in Curitiba, Brazil.
"In effect, we are currently responsible for the sixth major extinction event in the history of earth, and the greatest since the dinosaurs disappeared, 65 million years ago," said the 92-page Global Biodiversity Outlook 2 report?.
A rising human population of 6.5 billion was undermining the environment for animals and plants via pollution, expanding cities, deforestation, introduction of "alien species" and global warming, it said.
It estimated the current pace of extinctions was 1,000 times faster than historical rates, jeopardizing a global goal set at a 2002 U.N. summit in Johannesburg "to achieve, by 2010, a significant reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss."
"Unprecedented additional efforts' will be needed to achieve the 2010 biodiversity target at national, regional and global levels," it said. The report was bleaker than a first U.N. review of the diversity of life issued in 2001. [End article.]
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