The little-known Sumatran serow is hunted and traded in Peninsular Malaysia, in violation of wildlife laws.
Source: www.thestar.com.my
GR: The ultimate selfish act: Eat a species to extinction–not in ignorance, and not to survive, just for potential health benefits for a few wealthy humans. Of course, eating wild animals to survive will also extinguish them.
BOGOTA – Biodiversity in Colombia, one of the richest on the planet, faces a “discouraging” future after centuries of human degradation of the continental ecosystems, according to a report released in Bogota.
The 2014 Biodiversity Report, prepared by the Alexander von Humboldt Research Institute, offers an exhaustive analysis of the status, trends and challenges of biodiversity in Colombia.l
Source: laht.com
GR: The human impact has many facets, but at its root is population growth. Construction, invasive species, deforestation, toxic chemicals, and greenhouse gas are all increasing along with population. Colombia, growing slower than many other countries, has tripled its population to near 50,000,000 since 1960, and shows no signs of slowing.
Climate change isn’t the only problem with our addiction to growth. Growth is causing a Great Death of species and ecosystems. Perhaps no economist and few politicians care if they ever see a bird or blade of grass again, but is a silent planet of stone and dust truly their goal? Do they believe that a magical door in space will let them go to a better world when this one is dead? I guess they are so concerned with growth that they don’t consider other issues. They’re like a driver checking their bank balance as their BMW races toward the red taillights ahead.
The following by on Climate Change, Politics
With the coming G20 talks about to kick off in Brisbane, the focus of the agenda centres on economic growth as the panacea for all our troubles. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey have been adamant in their focus upon the need to increase economic growth globally. It’s rare, if not impossible to find anyone in the mainstream public debate who questions the wisdom of ever-increasing economic growth. And yet there is a major underlying problem in our collective worship and addiction to growth – climate change.
Economic growth, rising affluence and a growing world population have been the major contributors to the environmental crisis we now face. Witness for instance our ever-escalating global greenhouse gas emissions. Despite four decades of political discussion about the urgency of climate change, the only times we have been able to halt this inexorable rise has been during periods of economic recession, such as our recent global financial crisis.
GR: Will the Puerto Rican parrot survive? It is the only remaining native parrot in Puerto Rico. Parrots of the region began disappearing in the 1700’s due to logging, farming, and pet collecting. The species’ prospects have improved, but the World Conservation Union still lists it as critically endangered. In 2012, there were only 58–80 individuals in the wild and 300 individuals in captivity. Considering the numbers that persist, I wondered if conservation efforts over the past 40 years have done enough.
This blog post from Brain Pickings describes the species’ step back from the brink of extinction.
“Most children’s books are full of animals — as protagonists, as pets, as age-old standbys in fairy tales and alphabet primers alike. But, as Jon Mooallem poignantly observed in his bittersweet love letter to wildlife, by the time each generation of children grows up, countless species of animals that roamed Earth during their childhood have gone extinct — today, scientists estimate that one species ceases to exist every twenty minutes. Perhaps whatever chance we have of reversing this tragedy lies in translating our children’s inherent love of animal characters into a tangible grown-up love of animal species, the kind of love that protects them from growing extinct, preserves their natural habitat, and honors the complex dynamics of ecosystems.”
Source: www.brainpickings.org
The critically endangered Regent Honeyeater could be at risk of extinction if plans to develop an industrial estate in New South Wales in Australia goes ahead, experts have found.
The bird is endemic to South Eastern Australia and this site contains one of the most important breeding habitats for this extremely rare bird, whose population has declined by more than 80 percent over the last 24 years.
“We are now certain that Regent Honeyeaters rely on this site for food and to breed,” said Samantha Vine, Head of Conservation at BirdLife Australia. “Development of this site will be catastrophic for this imperilled species.”
Source: www.wildlifeextra.com
GR: Not another extinction in Australia; right?
Australia’s Environment Minister Greg Hunt has pledged to end the extinction of native mammal species by 2020, with a focus on culprits such as feral cats.
Source: phys.org
GR: Invasive species, including feral species, are the second greatest short-term reasons for extinction. Even if we removed them all, extinctions would still occur. Habitat loss to human development is the greatest short-term reason. Development in the form of construction and resource harvest (agriculture, grazing, logging, and mining) is steadily eliminating the natural habitats required by native wildlife.
It makes sense to begin repairing our conservation efforts by controlling short-term reasons for extinction. However, we must also control the long-term human impacts (climate change, toxic wastes, and more) if we seriously intend to stop extinction.
Ending wildlife extinctions in just six years will be difficult. Growth and development have taken control of the Australian government, and these twin powers are not concerned with biodiversity. Here’s a current illustration of the problem.
“Brown University scientists in Providence found that the pre-human extinction rate was 10 times lower than scientists had believed, which means that the current level is 10 times worse.
Results:
By Ellie Zolfagharifard for MailOnline
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
GR: The Earth could get along just fine without us. If anyone can think of an ecosystem function that requires our presence, I would like to hear about it. Circumstantial and fossil evidence indicates that even when human numbers were small, the fires, animal drives, and plant preferences had harmful effects. Ecosystem resilience absorbed early human impacts, but now with more than seven billion of us, the impacts are simply overwhelming earth ecosystems. Livestock? Earth could tolerate a few domestic beasts, but not the billions we have now.
By Tony Hiss, Smithsonian Magazine
“The eminent evolutionary biologist E.O. Wilson has an audacious vision for saving Earth from a cataclysmic extinction event
“Battles are where the fun is,” said E.O. Wilson, the great evolutionary biologist, “and where the most rapid advances are made.” We were sitting in oversized rocking chairs in a northwest Florida guest cottage with two deep porches and half-gallons of butter-pecan ice cream in the freezer, a Wilson favorite. He’d invited me here to look at what he considers a new approach to conservation, a new ecological Grail that, naturally, won’t happen without a fight.
“Wilson, 85, is the author of more than 25 books, many of which have changed scientific understanding of human nature and of how the living part of the planet is put together.
“Known as the father of sociobiology, he is also hailed as the pre-eminent champion of biodiversity: Wilson coined the word “biophilia” to suggest that people have an innate affinity for other species, and his now widely accepted “theory of island biogeography” explains why national parks and all confined landscapes inevitably lose species. He grew up in and around Mobile, Alabama, and has been at Harvard for over 60 years but still calls himself “a Southern boy who came north to earn a living.” He is courtly, twinkly, soft-spoken, has a shock of unruly white hair, and is slightly stooped from bending over to look at small things all his life—he’s the world’s leading authority on ants. Wilson has earned more than a hundred scientific awards and other honors, including two Pulitzer Prizes. And perhaps his most urgent project is a quest to refute conservation skeptics who think there isn’t enough left of the natural world to be worth saving.
Source: www.smithsonianmag.com
GR: Perhaps this is our battle cry. “Save Half.” Half is a good place to start.
“French economist Thomas Piketty and his book Capital in the Twenty-First Century are a global publishing phenomenon. But while Piketty’s writing on wealth inequality has been widely debated, far fewer people know that he has some useful things to say about climate change and public capital.”
Source: theconversation.com
GR: This is a sad example of the type of professional economist debates that have earned Economics such a poor reputation. The discussion here is not about the immediate emergency need to stop the irreversible extinction of Earth’s species; it is about when the monetary costs of climate change will be paid.
GarryRogers Nature Conservation 