Biodiversity On Earth Plummets, Despite Growth in Protected Habitats

[marmar]

from HuffPost:



Despite rapid and substantial growth in the amount of land and sea designated as protected habitat over the last four decades, the diversity of species the world over is plummeting, a new study has found.

Over 100,000 so-called "protected areas" representing some 7 million square miles of land and nearly 1 million square miles of ocean have been established since the 1960's, noted the analysis, published Thursday in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series.

And yet, according to a widely cited index used to track planetary biodiversity, the wealth of terrestrial and marine species has seen steady decline over roughly the same period, suggesting that simply protecting swaths of land and sea -- a common conservation strategy worldwide -- is inadequate for preventing the steady disappearance of earth's creatures. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/30/richness-of-life-on-earth_n_913958.html

[Urban Prairie]

1. Earth will likely find a means to remove the human parasite from itself sooner or later.

Or perhaps we will genetically create the altered viral "bug" that is necessary to do ourselves in for her...

[immoderate]

2. Seems more like we ARE the virus.

I don't think there is a cure for us.



--imm

[drokhole]

4. In the (unlikely) words of Joe Rogan...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zyc12-neTjM

[immoderate]

5. I gotta say that was brilliant.

It takes biologists, economists, and cosmologists, books to converge on similar conclusions to this "poet."


--imm

[Shagbark Hickory]

6. WEll said! What ever happened to Joe Rogan?

[tex-wyo-dem]

3. Protecting land and ocean is only part of the equation...

The very way humans choose to live is the overarching issue to maintaining a healthy planet and preserving biodiversity.

Overpopulation & overconsumption, which leads to pollution, destruction of habitat, depletion of resources and a general over-straining of the Earth's ability to maintain the careful balance needed to sustain life.

We need to drastically change the way we conduct our lives on Earth...

But I see little chance of that happening before it's too late...

[Gregorian]

7. Essentially nothing changes until population is decreased.

I just bought a pair of shoes. The box it came in was made of paper. A million other people also bought shoes yesterday. That's a million boxes. That is part of a forest that is now gone.

Anyone who has read my posts heard me say that this isn't going to be a crash, but a slow smoldering wreck that ends in a planet with little diversity.

So argue away that we can sustain this population, and you'll just be losing more time to the inevitable disaster. It's already an emergency, and we're focused on circuses.

Someone tell me what we're going to do about it. I've already said we need serious population regulation. But that ends in shouting matches. And the alternative is a dead planet.