More Than 15,000 Species Facing Extinction

[Placebo]

More than 15,000 species, from sharks to frogs to fir trees, are facing extinction and the total is rising faster than ever before, conservationists and scientists said on Wednesday. Despite efforts to slow or reverse the slide into oblivion of many species, one in three amphibians and almost half of all freshwater turtles are threatened, the IUCN World Conservation Union said at the unveiling of its 2004 species "Red List."

One in eight types of bird and a quarter of all mammals are also known to be in jeopardy, the conservation group said at the beginning of its eight-day World Conservation Congress in the Thai capital. In reality, the situation is probably far worse.

"Although 15,589 species are known to be threatened with extinction, this greatly underestimates the true number as only a fraction of known species have been assessed," said Craig Hilton-Taylor, the IUCN's "Red List" program officer.

full article may be found here: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041117/sc_nm/environment_species_dc

[whistle]

1. Don't we face that every yaer?

[Lorien]

6. No, we don't

When I was a kid, I can remember the list being in the hundreds.This is spinning completely out of control.

[Demeter]

2. That's Okay

Since it is very likely that Homo Sapiens will extinct itself first, all the other species will then be able to make a comeback.

[Lorien]

5. Um, no

when we go, the next step is for the planet to turn into something that resembles Mars. No species will be left because we are swiftly creating a situation where the earth won't be able to produce oxygen.

This mass extinction of species is a tragedy. I get sick and tired of the flippant "who cares" attitudes on this board regarding the fate of anything non-human. We're all interconnected; if you can't have compassion for, or see inherent value in, anything that isn't human, then I hope that you at least will recognize the fact that the earth functions as one massive living organism. Like an automobile, you can remove just so many parts before it simply stops running.

[Demeter]

7. Think about the dinosaurs, though

Through no fault of their own, they didn't survive the comet. They were the top of the chain.

Same day, different top dog. Humans won't survive, though some primate cousins might. And the earth will have a chance to replenish.

[clownskull]

11. Spiders

I really think we need to something about this. But it's going to get worse.

On another note. I kinda (deeply and darkly) hope spiders go extinct. They scare the crap out of me :scared: :cry:

[GoSolar]

15. Thanks, Jen6

Well said.

[NickB79]

22. I doubt our world would ever become that bad

If anything, it would trend more towards Venus than Mars, but even that's pushing it. It would take a massive amount of climatic change (even greater than what we're doing now) to override the climate control mechanisms our planet seems to have built-in. Increase the temperature too far through CO2-released global warming, you shut down the Gulf Stream, and the Northern Hemisphere falls back into an Ice Age, cooling our planet. And our planet has shown remarkable resiliance against temperature drops, such as during asteroid impact winters and Snowball Earth 600 million yrs ago.

I'm not trying to dismiss this mass extinction we are currently causing, but it doesn't do our cause any good to make wild claims about turning our planet into Mars when such a thing is highly, highly unlikely, and there are plenty of existing problems that we could be drawing awareness to that are very, very likely to occur.

[JudyM]

17. ... following closely on the heels of the extinction of democracy

[Mountainman]

3. Well we better start killing and stuffing enough of them so the natural

history museums will have enough examples to show future generations what life use to be like on earth before conservatives took over control.

[Krs216]

4. This is rediculous

The world desparately needs Democratic control of the government in the United States.

[Eloriel]

8. That would be a good, though very small, first step. n/t

[okieinpain]

10. hhahahahahahahahaha!!!!! now that's funny.

[C.C.D.]

9. Sick. Sick. Sick. We've got to start reducing consumerism, y'all. (nt)

[lawladyprof]

12. For Biblical literalists

If God provided for all these species to be carried in the Ark to save them from the Flood, then what ya'll doing destroying what God so tenderly saved. Make analogous argument re: Genesis.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

14. GREAT! Enviros to fundies: WE ARE ALL NOAH!

I'm taking this to the Framing Group. Way to go, lawladyprof.

[JudyM]

18. um... it's more important to stop gays from marrying than it is to save

the planet.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

13. We are all frogs in a pond filling with gasoline. Save Kermit!

I'm thinking the Green Party should change its name to
the Frog Party with Kermit from Sesame Street as the mascot.

That way we teach our little human tadpoles to fight to save our asses in the big pond called Earth.

Everyone sing "It's not easy being green..."

[Voltaire99]

16. Yeah, but soon we'll all have plasma TVs, and iPods built into our skulls!

Haven't you heard? As John Kerry says, it's time to heal and unite!

[MisterP]

19. and flying cars! domed cities with filtered air! Internet jacks in us!

space elevators! and superhuman AIs will become sentient and save us all! Francis Fukuyama and Arthur C. Clarke say so!

[struggle4progress]

20. kick

:kick:

[Brand New Tico]

21. I wish Fundamentalist Republicans were on the list

The world would actually be much better off if they would just naturally fade away.