Posted on 03/20/2006 9:20:10 AM PST by Pharmboy
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.
NOT ABATING
According to a "Red List" compiled by the World Conservation Union, 844 animals and plants are known to have gone extinct in the last 500 years, ranging from the dodo to the Golden Toad in Costa Rica. It says the figures are probably a big underestimate.
"The direct causes of biodiversity loss -- habitat change, over-exploitation, the introduction of invasive alien species, nutrient loading and climate change -- show no sign of abating," the report said.
Despite the threats, it said the 2010 goal was "by no means an impossible one."
It urged better efforts to safeguard habitats ranging from deserts to jungles and better management of resources from fresh water to timber. About 12 percent of the earth's land surface is in protected areas, against just 0.6 percent of the oceans.
It also recommended more work to curb pollution and to rein in industrial emissions of gases released by burning fossil fuels and widely blamed for global warming.
The report said, for instance, that the annual net loss of forests was 7.3 million hectares (18 million acres) -- an area the size of Panama or Ireland -- from 2000-2005. Still, the figure was slightly less than 8.9 million hectares a year from 1990-2000.
And it said that annual environmental losses from introduced pests in the United States, Australia, Britain, South Africa, India and Brazil had been estimated at more than $100 billion.
About 300 "invasive species" -- molluscs, crustaceans and fish -- have been introduced to the Mediterranean from the Red Sea since the late 19th century when the Suez Canal opened.
It gave mixed overall marks for progress on four key goals.
It said there was "reasonable progress" toward global cooperation but "limited" advances in ensuring enough cash and research. It estimated that annual aid to help slow biodiversity losses sank to $750 million from $1 billion since 1998.
And it said there was "far from sufficient" progress in better planning and implementation of biodiversity decisions and a "mixed" record in better understanding of biodiversity.
This was not meant as a ping for your list, just for your interest. If you like, I can remove you from the "Humans are the cause of all Earthly disasters" ping list...
"Animals" to them and freakin BUGS, toads, and worms. These nuts want to run the world, control every aspect of your life.""
If you want to read about a "control" issue, look up NAIS- National Animal Identification System. They will be very intrusive, and make you complicit in your own prosecution, violating both the 4th and 5th amandment to the Constitution.
We must all work to stop this NOW. It is so far under the radar, it is like being in a tunnel.
ExACTly...and aren't we humans part of the natural environment anyway?
That's true if you follow evolutionists thinking. They just 'evolved and got smaller. The miget gene took over the whole works. Bat's actually had 40 foot wingspans at one time.
What the UN needs to do is get all their evolutionists lined up and on the same page. If we really look, we can see that there are actually MORE species today than there were 500 years ago.
And didn't someone discover a whole bunch of new species in a cave a few months back? Also, there were dicoveries of "new" species in the ocean recently as well, and ina remote jungle in India. We have MORE species, not LESS!!!
This UN propaganda is in conflict with discovies made just this year!
If we're so good at it, why can't we make the UN extinct?
LOL!
our pols are the Dr.Frankensteins of evolution. making sure the 'survival of the fittest' doesn't happen.
after all, no gumbint program or bureacracy is EVER a failure, it's just underfunded.
I'd prefer to be moved to the subset of that list, the one that starts out: "The UN says ..."
With our current technology, would it be possible to divert a small asteroid so that it lands on the UN building?
Golly geez, well...I'm afraid we'll all need to implement some form global socialism to address this serious matter.
America especially will need to submit to a world government run by...by...well, gee, I guess by the U.N.
Since its our unfair, evil, exploitative, rapacious, capitalist system that's causing all these problems in the first place...we'll of course want to have our government and taxation and legal systems subordinated to this new all-powerful global entity (especially our tax system).
The new global government can then get on with creating the glorious global utopia that America is currently blocking from coming into existence because of its incredible selfishness
[I could post the above commentary into EVERY thread started using some 'urgent' dispatch from the U.N.]
I just saw a thread yesterday that said that Europeans and in particular Germans are just not reproducing anymore. I guess we should find out who is doing it and make them stop.
Now if we could extinct the UN scum sucking criminals.
844 species (mostly insects and plants) going extinct in the last 500 years is squat.
Man I hate how this "largest extinction event since the dinosaurs" has been spun into us for so many years. Even I was almost starting to believe it.
This is nothing. It is barely above "the normal mother nature at work" level that would be expected.
I am so tired of the misinformation that the environmental movement has spread over the years.
There was the passenger pigeon in the US sometime in the 1800's. I am skeptical of any serious plantlife going extinct. But I have no idea what may or may not have gone belly up since.
Check out the Permian if you want a REAL extinction. SHeesh!
Beautiful phrase. I just might steal it...
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