Unprecedented effort needed to save world's biodiversity: UN study (2010 maybe too late)

Yahoo News ^ | 5/21/05 | AFP

[Libloather]

Unprecedented effort needed to save world's biodiversity: study
Sat May 21, 2:59 AM ET

MONTREAL (AFP) - An unprecedented effort is required between now and 2010 to stop further deterioration of the planet's fragile biodiversity, according to a UN report that compiled the work of 1,300 researchers.

In fact, 2010 may be too late, say the authors of the report, pleading with governments, NGOs, international organizations and companies to immediately put in place longterm conservation plans.

According to the report published this week in Montreal, "The world in 2100 could have substantial remaining biodiversity or it could be relatively homogenized and contain low levels of diversity."

"Changes in biodiversity due to human activities were more rapid in the past 50 years than at any time in human history," the report stated.

Dubbed the Second Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report, it is part of a massive study launched by the United Nations in 2001 meant to fill in scientific gaps to better measure ongoing environmental changes and understand their global impact.

Thirty-five percent of mangroves -- tropical shrubs that grow on muddy sea shores -- have disappeared in the past two decades, and 20 percent of coral reefs have been destroyed, while 25 percent of conifers and 35 percent of amphibians are in danger of extinction, say scientists.

These tragic circumstances are due to the over-exploitation of natural resources, as well as growing demand for oil and natural gas that pollute the atmosphere, putting increasing pressure on ecosystems and biodiversity.

Proposed solutions aim to link economic development and the protection of biodiversity.

"I think this report is saying we can have a balance, but we need to reduce some of the influence, we need to also move away from just pure conservation, the 'dont touch' kind of policy and a little bit more sharing," economist and co-author of the report Anantha Kumar Duraiappah told AFP.

Making a link between the economy and the protection of biodiversity is even more important in developing countries because they tend to rely mostly on the exploitation of natural resources to sustain their fragile economies.

Poor communities, particularly those in rural areas of developing countries are more dependent on biodiversity. They rely more on ecosystems and so are most vulnerable to their degradation, according to the report.

"If you tell developing countries 'sorry but you have to conserve your ecosystem therefore you should not grow economically.' So they keep their ecosystem and they all starve," Duraiappah said.

In addition to more conventional solutions like creating or expanding protected natural areas, the report recommends the elimination of agricultural subsidies estimated at 350 billion dollars annually for countries that are members of the international Organization for Ecomonic Co-operation and Development.

"A significant proportion of this total involved production subsidies that lead to overproduction, and reduce the profitability of agriculture in developing countries," the report stated.

[randog]

Whenever we run into a moron who buys into this pablum, we always insist we will follow their lead if they would only kill themselves first to save the planet.

I always ask them a few simple questions that stop them dead in their tracks: Do you have any children or do you plan on having any children? If so, then why are you making the problem worse?

[Smokin' Joe]

LOL! Kill it, skin/shell/bake/broil/fry/sautee/simmer, whatever, and write a cookbook.

If they would just stop declaring each separate (sometimes not even that!) population a different species, we wouldn't need so much 'diversity'.

Q: What is the difference between the Northern Spotted Owl and the Southern Spotted Owl?

A: Where they live.

[purpleland]

No report and no recommendation from the United Nations has credibility. Annan solicits reports from crony sources with the nefarious One World Government agenda. The fact that Annan solicited reports and meetings THIS YEAR to define "genocide" after tens of thousands were massacred in the Sudan for past TEN YEARS or more is quite enough to disqualify anything Kofi Annan and the UN have to say to the World about saving it.

Did Annan and the UN conclude genocide" is deadly? /sourism

[Smokin' Joe]

...more than enough to drown the world's islands and coasts, many of which are just a few meters above the current sea level.

Kinda what makes a 'coast' a coast, isn't it--proximity to the water...?

[Smokin' Joe]

That is why you can't drown a coast, the darned thing moves when the water goes up or down.

[Always Right]

These tragic circumstances are due to the over-exploitation of natural resources, as well as growing demand for oil and natural gas that pollute the atmosphere, putting increasing pressure on ecosystems and biodiversity.

What does that have to do with the demand for oil and natural gas? Seems like a lame attempt to try to tie global warming with problems that are really caused by other things.

[purpleland]

If only wealthy, environmentally sensitive "liberals" like the Kennedys, Heinz-Kerrys, Ted Turner, Michael Moore, Democrat politicians, movie stars, et al, would set the example for us to rein-in "our" overly conspicious wanton consumption and wasteful over-usage.

Most of us do not use limos, do not have private planes and a stable of automobiles, and do not have multiple mansions to light-up.

Let's start an austerity program by turning-off the electricity of the NY UN building, and forbid UN "diplomats" cruising around in limos and SUVs.

The UN pollutes the world with deception and hypocrisy.

[Thom Pain]

I have been told, or read somewhere, that of all the species created over time over 99% have died out already. And yet, we have enormous diversity of species (many more being discovered each year). Doomsday eco-freaks.

[Libloather]

...(many more being discovered each year).

Discovery of new species bucks extinction trend
20 May 2005 09:41

Just as 1300 scientists from 90 nations warn of looming extinction in the animal world, a small team of biologists has discovered a species of African monkey.

The highland mangabey -- Lophocebus kipunji -- was spotted by Wildlife Conservation Society biologists on the flanks of Mount Rungwe, a 3 500m volcano in Tanzania. It is brown, about 3ft long, with an erect crest of hair on its head. It has elongated cheek whiskers and an unusual call. It is also rare: the total population could be less than 1 000.

"This demonstrates again how little we know about our closest living relatives," said Russell Mittermeier of the IUCN-World Conservation Union's species survival commission. "A large, striking monkey in a country of considerable wildlife research over the last century has hidden under our noses."

There are about 4,000 mammals on the planet. Scientists in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment warned yesterday that more than a fifth of all mammals, a third of all amphibians and a quarter of the world's coniferous trees are threatened.

But paradoxically, zoologists and ornithologists keep discovering species or rediscovering others thought to have gone into oblivion. In the last few weeks a hitherto unsuspected rodent appeared in Laos and US ornithologists announced the rediscovery of a giant woodpecker, thought to have vanished decades ago, in Arkansas.

A patch of forest in Vietnam has in the last 20 years or so produced a new species of ox, a new kind of deer, and a pheasant thought extinct since 1928.

The Laotian woods revealed a strange new species of striped rabbit. Between 1937 and 1994, 16 species of large mammal were discovered, including six varieties of whale.

The new mangabey -- reported in Science today -- was first spotted by research biologists keen to conserve another species of mangabey, and seen again by second team of conservationists. The little primate's hold on survival might be precarious.

One part of its range is severely degraded by illegal logging. "Clearly this remarkable discovery shows that there are still wild places where humans are not yet the dominant species," said John Robinson of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"In fact, 2010 may be too late..."

Well, I'll take my chances. Where the heck am I supposed to go? My Rocket Ship is up on blocks in the yard, waiting for parts that haven't been invented yet.

They Mayan Calendar says the world ends in 2012, anyway.

*Rolleyes*

[Libloather]

Kebab meat rodent a new species
From correspondents in Paris
May 19, 2005
From: Agence France-Presse

AN odd-looking rodent, spotted in a Laotian food market where it was going to be turned into a kebab, has turned out to be not only a new species but also the first member of a new family of mammals to be identified in more than three decades.

The creature's official title is stone-dwelling puzzle-mouse and it has been honoured with the Latin name Laonastes aenigmamus.

Less poetically, it is being called a rock rat, or "kha-nyou" to local Laotians.

"(It) looks something like a cross between a large dark rat and a squirrel, but is actually more closely related to guinea pigs and chinchillas," the British weekly magazine New Scientist reports.

The rodent has long whiskers with a thicky, furry tail, large paws, stubby limbs and is around 40cm long.

The discovery was made by Robert Timmins, a member of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, who spotted a dead rock rat as it was about to be grilled as a kebab.

"It was for sale on a table next to some vegetables," said Mr Timmins. "I knew it was something I had never seen before."

Mr Timmins and colleagues subsequently found the animal in rocky limestone outcrops in the Khammouan National Biodiversity Conservation Area in central Laos, but they have never seen it alive.

The discovery is "a major zoological find", New Scientist says.

New rodent species are discovered at the rate of one every year or so.

But what makes the rock-rat special is that it is the first member of a whole new family of mammals, now called Laonastidae.

The last time this happened was in 1974, when the bumblebee bat was discovered.

"To find something so distinct in this day and age is just extraordinary. For all we know, this could be the last remaining mammal family left to be discovered," Mr Timmins told New Scientist.

The report appears in next Saturday's issue of the magazine. The full study appears in a specialist British journal, Systematics and Biodiversity.

Taxonomy classifies living creatures according to progressively narrower definitions: Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and, finally, species.

[theFIRMbss]

>The Mayan Calendar says the world ends in 2012

Mayan schmy-an. Hell,
Planet X is gonna flip
the Earth's crust Real Soon!

[Theo]

How much destruction of the earth's biodiversity was caused by Zimbabwe's dictator, Mugabe?

[henderson field]

"...highland mangabey...?
I still say it looks like Jimmy Carter.