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The Global Species Extinction Emergency
Copyright (c) 2007-2010 Larry Mondello
Humanity is currently causing the irreversible destruction of an alarming amount of species. The true story of a typical murder back in the '60's reminds me of how most of the world's population is ignoring the mass global species extinction going on today.
The strange circumstances of the murder of Catherine Genovese were described in the New York Times in March of 1964. The article begins:
"For more than half an hour thirty-eight respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens.
Twice the sound of their voices and the sudden glow of their bedroom lights interrupted him and frightened him off. Each time he returned, sought her out, and stabbed her again. Not one person telephoned the police during the assault; one witness called after the woman was dead."
How could thirty-eight respectable citizens stand by and do nothing to help this poor woman? Many explained that it had to do with big-city apathy and our society's slide into indifference and selfishness.
Two New York-based psychology professors who understood social psychology, Bibb Latane and John Darley, posited that the thirty-eight people all failed to call the police because of social proof reasons. Each person probably thought someone else must have surely made the call already.
They also suggested that often in distressful times, people will look around at how others are acting and key off their behavior. So if we're unsure if something really is an emergency, we look for clues in the people around us, and if they're not panicking or doing anything, we conclude that it must not be an emergency. Maybe the witnesses looked out their windows and so no urgency in the other onlookers.
The way most of the world today is ignoring the unprecedented destruction of many of the world's species, habitats and ecosystems seems eerily similar to the way those thirty-eight bystanders failed to act back in 1964.
The Earth's entire ecosystem is under attack and the vast majority of people are doing nothing. Why? Maybe it's apathy, greed, selfishness or perceived lack of social proof. Perhaps most people wrongly conclude that irrevocably losing species forever isn't a big deal. Maybe everyone thinks someone else will take care of the problem. It's possible that many people think they'll be dead long before it affects them. Maybe it's a combination of all of these reasons.
Thankfully there are some scientists, ecologists, professors and environmentalists who are fighting to save our environments, but they represent a tiny fraction of the total population. I am writing this to try to help people realize the emergency we're presently facing. I also hope to move people to take some kind of action now. This means you.
A study recently released by the World Conservation Union, a coalition of leading conservation groups, says that more than 11,000 plants and animals could be extinct within the first few decades of the 21st century. It says one of every four mammals and one of every eight birds could face extinction. Although the extinction of various species is an ongoing natural phenomenon and has happened at accelerated rates in Earth's past, the rate of extinction occurring in today's world is exceptional -- as many as 100 to1,000 times greater than natural rates found in the fossil record, Dr. Donald A. Levin said in the January-February issue of American Scientist magazine.
The World Conservation Union issued its "Red List", an annual report on the conservation status of species. They called their 2004 report "the most comprehensive evaluation ever undertaken of the status of the world's biodiversity."
The following is taken from the 2004 Red List's Executive Summary:
15,589 species (7,266 animal species and 8,323 plant and lichen species) are now considered at risk of extinction - an increase of 3,330 species since the 2003 Red List.
Among major species groups, the percentage of threatened species ranges between 12% and 52%.
One eighth of all birds are threatened, almost a quarter of all mammals, and about one third of all amphibians are threatened as well.
The numbers of threatened species are increasing across almost all major taxonomic groups.
Scientists believe that the Earth has experienced five other mass extinctions in its history, often called the "Big Five". They all agree that we are now in the Sixth Extinction called the Holocene extinction event. The previous extinction periods were triggered by natural causes, such as impact events like meteor strikes, large movements by tectonic plates or high volcanic activity. These natural events all led to climate change which then caused mass species extinction.
The observed rate of extinction has accelerated dramatically in the last 50 years, to a pace greater than the rate seen during each of the Big Five extinction periods.
Our current extinction period is being caused by humans. Humanity is encroaching on natural habitats all over the world, at the expense of wildlife. We're greatly disrupting the ecological balance by hunting, transmitting diseases, and especially by destroying or taking over habitats.
We routinely breech the "carrying-capacity" of many ecosystems and environments today. Because of the current large human population growth, we're putting more and more stress on various natural environments with destructive activities. The top activities humans engage in that are responsible for this blight on the world's environment are:
Tropical deforestation
Transformation of the landscape
The introduction of alien species
Soil contamination
Air, water and land pollution
Over-fishing
Agriculture
Coral destruction
Overexploitation of species
Global warming
The debate about global warming is ridiculous. When I hear people say they don't believe in global warming or tell me not to worry because the Earth has gone through it before, I feel like I am talking to a 13th Century person arrogantly bellowing that the world is flat.
When I hear this I imagine they don't know, or choose to ignore, the following fact:
Though natural amounts of CO2 have varied from 180 to 300 parts per million (ppm), today's CO2 levels are around 380 ppm. That's 25% more than the highest natural levels over the past 650,000 years. Today's abnormally high temperatures and CO2 concentrations come from the burning of fossil fuels.
Even if we completely disregard global warming for the moment, the exponential population growth the world is experiencing is causing mass extinction too.
When habitats go, global species extinction follows. Like termites slowly eating away at one's home, humanity's blind and unchecked advance on the environment will eventually bring the house down.
Does it matter? I believe it does. There are most likely solutions to energy problems and disease in the very natural resources that we're destroying. The biodiversity in the Amazon is considered a potentially excellent source of future medicine or pharmaceutical knowledge. Humanity could be horribly affected if certain species become extinct, we just don't know. We must always remember that we're a part of nature; that our survival as a species is dependent on nature.
We're like an ape with a club swinging wildly in a modern day living room. We have no idea what we're destroying, and we never will unless we stop swinging. Our cleverness in developing technology and creating ways to live longer and better may be our downfall.
But there is still hope. There are those who work every day to educate people on conservation issues. People are continually coming up with solutions, and saving endangered species. In fact, many species have already been saved from extinction.
There are present and future technologies that could solve many conservation and habitat destruction issues. Globally threatened species require a combination of conservation acts and collective action from large groups of people and nations who are willing to work together for a better future.
Consider this article like a man leaning out the window on that fateful night in 1964 to warn you that Catherine Genovese's murder could be stopped if you just took some kind of action now.
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