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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (52153)	8/19/1999 12:22:00 PM
From: Father Terrence	Respond to of 108807

I wish Christine would read it, but I guess that would upset the fantasies she chooses to live her life by...

To: The Philosopher who wrote (52153)	8/19/1999 6:21:00 PM
From: jbe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Christopher, I fear you will have to take off those rose-colored glasses...<g> I refer to your comment on the excerpt that Terry posted: ...After periods when about 90% of all species went overboard,now under the era of humans we have the highest biodiversity ever. The excerpt came from the summary of Chapter II ("Extinction: How Serious Is The Threat?") of a book published by the World Resources Institute, entitled: Keeping Options Alive: The Scientific Basis for Conserving Biodiversity. The passage that cheered you was this one: Global biological diversity is now close to its all time high. Floral diversity, for example, reached its highest level ever several tens of thousands of years ago. Similarly, the diversity of marine fauna has risen to a peak in the last few million years. Excuse me, but we are talking tens of thousands of years, even a few million years, here. Modern "homo sapiens" first appeared -- when? -- some 120,000 years ago? And how many years ago did "homo sapiens" actually begin to dominate the planet? In other words, wouldn't you say that the "era of humans" began very recently indeed? Read on, Macduff....and go to final section("Losses of Biodiversity and Their Causes)of Chapter II summary: Biological diversity is being eroded as fast today as at any time since the dinosaurs died out some 65 million years ago. The crucible of extinction is believed to be in tropical forests. Around 10 million species live on earth, according to the best estimates, and tropical forests house between 50 and 90 percent of this total. About 17 million hectares of tropical forests--an area four times the size of Switzerland--are now being cleared annually, and scientists estimate that at these rates roughly 5 to 10 percent of tropical forest species may face extinction within the next 30 years. Tropical forests are by no means the only sites with endangered biodiversity. Worldwide, nearly as much temperate rainforest--once covering an area nearly the size of Malaysia--has also been lost. Although the total extent of forest in the northern temperate and boreal regions has not changed much in recent years, in many areas the species-rich, old-growth forests have been steadily replaced by second-growth forests and plantations. The biodiversity of marine and freshwater systems face serious loss and degradation. Perhaps hardest hit of all are freshwater ecosystems, battling long-term pollution and the introduction of many alien species. Marine ecosystems too are suffering from the loss of unique populations of many species and are undergoing major ecological changes. Direct and Indirect Causes The current losses of biodiversity have both direct and indirect causes. The direct mechanisms include habitat loss and fragmentation, invasion by introduced species, the over-exploitation of living resources, pollution, global climate change, and industrial agriculture and forestry. But these are not the root of the problem. Biotic impoverishment is an almost inevitable consequence of the ways in which the human species has used and misused the environment in the course of its rise to dominance. As people awaken to the damage unsustainable development is increasingly inflicting on the web of life and the human prospect, the search for solutions must turn inward. The roots of the biodiversity crisis are not "out there" in the forest or on the savannah, but embedded in the way we live. They lie in burgeoning human numbers, the way in which the human species has progressively broadened its ecological niche and appropriated ever more of the earth's biological productivity, the excessive and unsustainable consumption of natural resources, a continuing reduction in the number of traded products from agriculture and fisheries, economic systems that fail to set a proper value on the environment, inappropriate social structures, and weaknesses in legal and institutional systems. Just as biodiversity is an essential resource for sustainable development, finding sustainable ways to live is essential if biological diversity is to be conserved. wri.org I want to thank Terry for providing the URL of the World Resources Institute home page. It looks like a very interesting outfit. These are not "eco-terrorists," but apparently solid feet-on-the-ground, level-headed people, who work closely with businesses to formulate sensible policies encouraging "sustainable development," who believe that economic progress and environmental controls are fully compatible, etc., etc.