All is silent down at the pond (BBC)

[Dead_Parrot]

Don't think this is dupe...

Conservationists are mistaken, argues Professor Tim Halliday in this week's Green Room; many animals and plants cannot be saved from extinction, and the job of conservation scientists is to document them as they disappear.

As long ago as 1952, Rachel Carson predicted a 'Silent Spring' if humans did not change their relationship with the natural environment.

For many amphibians, the silent spring is now a reality, and in many parts of the world the calls of frogs have been silenced.

This is happening at a time when public and scientific interest in biodiversity has reached an unparalleled level, as realisation increases that planet Earth is entering the sixth major episode of extinction in its history.

More at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4582024.stm if you can actually bear to read it. :(

[beam me up scottie]

1. Rachel Carson was right on.

Similarly enigmatic declines and extinctions are occurring in other habitats, notably in the oceans.

Even if they had plenty of time and money, conservationists can only hope to protect a few of the many species that face imminent extinction.

It is the responsibility of biologists, I suggest, to admit that the conventional view of conservation - that we can and should preserve at-risk organisms - is simply untenable.

What we can and must do is document the decline and disappearance of species that cannot be saved, so that at least some kind of record of them will be preserved.

[blindpig]

2. What a cheery morning read....

Excuse me while I slit my wrist.

All too sickenly true. This however no excuse to not make every effort to prevent any extinction that we can. Not faulting Professor Halliday for calling them as he sees them, the field of amphibian conservation is terribly bleak these days. Unfortunately the forces of greed and madness will seize on such statements as evidence that they should not be impeded in their changing the Earth into money for futile efforts. I can see logging interests touting this news as reason not to set aside large tracts for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. :grr:

[phantom power]

3. Nothing left but to bear witness.

I have a vision of watching Life on Earth, fifty years from now, except it will no longer be a celebration, it will be an indictment. A guilty verdict. Marley's ghost, with a chain link for every species.