Earth In Crisis As Wildlife Numbers Plummet

[Harpo]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/earth-crisi...031832018.html

Earth is a planet in crisis with wildlife populations declining by more than 30% in the past four decades, conservationists claim.
A new report examined how more than 9,000 populations of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians and fish are faring.
It comes in the face of record over-consumption of natural resources with serious implications for human health, wealth and well-being.
Freshwater creatures in the tropics have seen the worst declines, of around 70%, while tropical species as a whole have seen populations tumble by 60% since 1970.
In Asia, tiger numbers have fallen 70% in just 30 years.
Wildlife is under pressure from ever-growing human demand for resources, the study by WWF , the latest Living Planet report from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the Global Footprint Network said.
And research into demand for water revealed 2.7bn people live in areas that suffer severe water shortages for at least one month of the year.

People are exploiting resources such as water, forests and fisheries and putting greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere at a much higher rate than they can be replenished and pollution absorbed.
The "ecological footprint" of human activity was 50% higher than the capacity of the Earth's land and oceans in 2008, the most recent year for which figures are available, with people living as though we have a planet and a half to sustain us.
Rising population and consumption means that by 2030, two planets will not be enough to meet human demand, threatening the resources including food, freshwater and a stable climate that people need to survive, the report said.
WWF-UK's chief executive David Nussbaum said the underlying cause of declines in nature was the rate of human consumption.
"If you're relying on your annual account and you overspend, you eat into your savings until there's nothing left," he said.
"At the moment we are in danger of doing that with our life support system, Planet Earth."
He said the UK was living in the eye of the storm, without yet feeling the impacts of its over-consumption, but warned the "whirlwind of consumerism is whipping up and causing all sorts of damage".
The UK is 27th in the global rankings for how the ecological footprint of how each person in the country consumes, a five-place rise from the last report two years ago.
And while wildlife populations in temperate regions such as Europe have risen by around 31% since 1970, WWF warned this only showed habitats and species bouncing back from previous lows when they had been degraded and damaged.
ZSL 's Professor Tim Blackburn said: "We are living in a planet in crisis, and the Living Planet Index is one window into how bad that crisis is."
WWF called on governments and businesses, who are meeting in Rio de Janeiro next month to discuss sustainable development, to address the situation with the same urgency and determination that they put into dealing with the financial crisis.

[Vertigo]

Ooooh don't get me started on this. Talk about a bunch of lemmings and yes I know that behaviour is a myth but...

We are walking towards a cliff edge wearing a blindfold. I really think the biggest problem is overpopulation. We need population control and we need it about 100 years ago. With the standard of living we aspire to in the developed countries the planet can maybe, just maybe, sustain a population around half what it is now.

[Venusian Broon]

Originally Posted by Vertigo

With the standard of living we aspire to in the developed countries the planet can maybe, just maybe, sustain a population around half what it is now.

Well if we can't do it, I'm sure that Nature will eventually find a way.

[Vertigo]

Yes I'm rather afraid you might be right - HIV and eBola and the various animal flu mutations are likely just warm ups. You get any populations living in the sort of concentrations humans live in and germs start having a field day.

[hopewrites]

I won't disagree that we and our planet are in crisis. Nor will I contradict those who warn that doom is upon us and our planet.
But I wish people, ecologists especially, would let go of the need/desire for stasis. We live on a planet whose very foothold in success rests on change; the ability and desire to adapt to ever changing environments.
By maintaining a many-handed strangle hold over our natural predators, we are only maintaining a vacuum over our own heads.

The rest of my opinions are too super-villain-y for me to really accept that I feel that way so I'll stop here.

[Huttman]

It's all so disheartening, isn't it? There are 'big economic wheels' that keep this planet spinning, and I don't think there could ever be enough little wheels that turn direction to change the motives of the big wheels to stop this greedy insanity and self destruction. I'm not trying to be pesimistic, but these stories come out every so often and we justifiably feel really bad and maybe we even make a few changes in our lives to make us feel better and not give certain corporations our hard earned cash anymore. Then the next day comes and we go out to be that cog again to fuel countless other corporational eviltees and the gears keep spinning and there's more pollution, more species coming closer to extinction and the fat kats keep getting fatter. (I like cats so I won't spell that analogy with a 'c'). The anguish of the nations not knowing the way out.
I know it is not a very popular thing to discuss...spiritualality on the chrons here, so lets not discuss it. Let me say just one thing and if you think its hogwash, OK, nothing further will be said. There is a very interesting scripture that says 'God will bring to ruin those ruining the Earth'. Fascinating for someone 2000+ years ago to feel compelled to write such a far-fetched idea. Who could of thought of ruining the entire planet back then? I'm just trying to give hope, because we need it with stories like this.

[Boneman]

Until we take steps to reduce the birthrate and hence the world's population, we haven't a chance... Nature will do it if we don't, and she'll be a lot more drastic than 'proper' measures taken now. That isn't a fascist, eugenics view it's a pragmatic, logical view. If a species has no predators and continues to expand, eventually there will not be enough resources to sustain it, and it will be decimated by famine, disease and war. We do not, and will not have, the ability to colonise the stars nearest us... It's up to us to sort it out, starting now. Are we doing that?

[Vertigo]

Sadly we all know the answer to that last question Boneman

[Boneman]

It's what comes of leaving politicians in charge...

And here's the thing that will kill bllions quickest. It's only a dozen years away.

By 2020, water use is expected to increase by 40 percent, and 17 percent more water will be required for food production to meet the needs of the growing population. According to another estimate from the United Nations, by 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in regions with absolute water scarcity, and two out of three people in the world could be living under conditions of water stress (UNEP 2007)

http://www.worldwater.org/data/20082009ch01.pdf

[Vertigo]

Yeah I always keep wondering whether it will be water, food or oil that will be first to cause major conflict. I don't mean something like the West using the pathetic excuses they put forward for invading oil rich countries like Iraq. I'm talking about a major conflict over those resources which sadly is probably going to be inevitable.

[hopewrites]

Nature is trying to step in and curb our birthrates. but at every turn the scientific-medical community is there to turn her hand and parry death once more.
The increasing infertility rate is not coincidence. But thanks to "the miracles of modern medicine" infertility can be overcome (for the right price). On a personal level, yes it is a wonderful miracle, there is a lot of heart ache involved in not being able to conceive or keep for at least one trimester the children one would like to have. Having seen close friends and family go through this heart ache I know just how much of a miracle these children are and how well they are loved once they arrive.
But taking it back off the personal level, it smacks of the arrogance that humans so often manifest when "managing" natural resources. It seems to me that as a species, we have yet to learn balance. We learn it here and there in one place or another, individual balance, but not how to recognize and maintain balance before upsetting it.

[Vertigo]

Agreed Hope and as a race we are astonishngly good at burying our collective head in the sand!

Oh well at least I won't be around when future generations are cursing us for what we did to the planet

[JimBraiden]

Yes, a report form the totally neutral and disinterested WWF.
Best taken with a very large grain of salt.

[Vertigo]

Of course they are neither disinterested or neutral, it would be plain silly for them to be so. That does not mean their report has no value. Pretty much everything in it agrees with the findings from pretty much any ecological report on the state of the planet (including the UN ones). I think you will find the only 'reports' disagreeing with it are sponsered by oil compaines, lumber companies, mining companies etc. And I know which I would trust more.

[JimBraiden]

I did not say the report had no value- simply pointed out that when a multi national organisation which employes thousands of people, has an annual turnover of nearly $750 million dollars and whose raison d'etre is pushing the a message of environmental crisis publishes a paper about earth in crisis the first question that should be asked is cui bono?
As for reprts disagreeing with it being sponsored by oil/lumber/mining companies I have not come across any- could you provide a liink or two?
And of course it should be remembered that WWF receives funding from oil, gas and mineral companies- in fact the WWF was founded in 1961 witht he aid of a large grant from Shell.