Posted on 10/04/2005 8:40:21 AM PDT by GreenFreeper
Environmentalists proposed a $404 million global action plan yesterday at a conference in Washington D. C. to protect and preserve amphibian species. The conference came in response to a study last year that revealed one-third of all amphibian species face a high risk of extinction.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Conservation International joined other wildlife groups to plan further research studies and long term initiatives to protect amphibian habitats. Next is the task of securing funds for the projects from private institutions and individual donors.
"The frogs are trying to tell us something," said Andrew Dobson, a Princeton University professor who studies infectious diseases in the wild. "We're making the world a sicker place and, mercifully, the frogs have picked up on it before humans."
The Global Amphibian Assessment, released last October, revealed that of 5,743 amphibian species, 34 are known to be extinct and more than a hundred others are believed to have suffered extinction. While scientists said the most common threat to amphibians appears to be the fungal disease chytridomycosis, viral disease, habitat loss, drought and pollution are other commonly cited reasons for population declines.
The effect of chytridiomycosis on frog populations in south and central America, Australia, Africa and Europe has become the primary cause for concern as scientists push for captive breeding programs to protect species from the disease.
Not all scientists agree that removing threatened amphibians from the wild is the answer. "We've been running a captive breeding program with the Boreal Toad since 1995," said Cynthia Carey, a professor at the University of Colorado. "We've tried reintroducing them to the wild seven or eight times, but every time they die within a couple of years; if you don't get rid of the fungus, all you're doing is providing it with lunch."
Like the exploding frogs in Germany? Give me a break! What a bunch of loons.
I'm actually surprised they are trying to secure funds for the projects from private institutions and individual donors. That has to be some sort of first!
And here I thought it was Simple Green......
Frogs need money ping.
The operative word in your post is "could".
A meteor "could" strike the Earth next week and eradicate all life.
You or I "could" get hit by a Mack truck while we're crossing the street.
While traveling at 70 mph, my car "could" have a blowout in the left front tire, thereby sending me across the median, meeting you head-on and killing us both.
"If" is said to be the biggest word in the dictionary. For tree- and bunny-huggers, I think the biggest word is "could".
I'm actually surprised they didn't use this as a chance to further hype Global Warming. Amphibian declines is a major talking point for these guys.
Yes but do we not take resonable precautions to try and avoid those situations? Of all the things you listed, we are away of all those dangers and have taken some reasonable precautions. It's one thing to not go crazy postulating the coulds and it's another to completely ignorant of potential danger.
"The frogs are trying to tell us something,"
Yep, they are saying that this boiling water in the pot is fine.
Why are environmentalists like watermellons. Because they are both green on the outside and red in the middle.
They could pay for most of this if they trade the allocated funds for that bridge to nowhere in Alaska thats in the highway bill lol
It would be funny to be a fly on a wall telling the Alaska pol "Sorry, your bridge has been traded in to save some frogs"
lol
But, um, doesn't this mean you would WANT to make the fungus extinct? But why? Doesn't fungus have a right to exist?
One thing that never sat well with me and the enviromentalists... They couldn't rationalize the food chain.
Well the environmentalists want everything to be 'good', but not too good. The fungi can exist so longs as it doesn't infringe on the right of another species to exist. Kinda eliminates the whole survival of the fittest eh?
Wow, I am the farthest from being an envirowacko, but you are missing the point.
BTW - $400 mil to save a toad is ridculous.
What a coincidence. I need $404M too!!
Don't they remember from their mandatory evolution schooling that extinction happens. New species evolve. Disadvantaged species go extinct. Its the great circle of life!
Then you'd best get busy raising the money.
Maybe Soros will help. He's probably got at least $404M in his coat pocket :)
Soros is waiting for the frogs to denounce Bush before he gives them a nickel.
Leave the darned things alone; the more you try to cure the disease or separate the animals from its influence, the less chance there is for the animals to develop their own natural resistance.
It is impossible to eradicate a fungus globally, but fools don't understand this.
Abortion and homosexuality are actually GOOD things to the eco-fascists. It cuts down on the "burdening" population of Mother Earth...
If and when it is shown that a particular pathogen has switched hosts, yes; but as a precautionary project to eliminate a whole strain when the prospects for success can't even be assessed, it makes for foolish policy.
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