On the road to nowhere
Earth’s biosphere is rapidly heading for extinction. Don’t just take my word for it; parse the numbers…
The World Conservation Union (IUCN) has revealed the extent of the extinction threat facing thousands of animals and plants in its latest Red List, at the recent 3rd IUCN World Conservation Congress that took place in Bangkok. Excerpt:
- 15,589 animals and plants face extinction, shown by the 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- More than 300 bird species in Asia are threatened due to logging, farming and development
- Poor people are most reliant on natural resources, which provide up to 50% of household income. Asia has half the world’s population and two thirds of the world’s poor. The Sekong forest in Cambodia yields US$ 398 to US$ 525 per household from various foodstuffs and forest products, in an area where average income is US$ 120
- Although 58% of the world’s coral reefs are endangered, some progress has been made in preserving these marine marvels
- The state of the oceans once more came under scrutiny, as a scientific study revealed that the long-term survival of reef fish, such as groupers and wrasses, retailing at around US$130/kg, is threatened by trade
- The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment – the largest study of its kind involving over 1,000 leading scientists and policy makers – tells us that only four of 22 assessed ecosystem services, such as water purification, have been enhanced through human action, whilst more than half have been degraded
- The monetary value of freshwater ecosystems has shown to change management decisions in 29 cases, including in the Muthurajawela Marsh in Sri Lanka and the Luang Marsh in Lao PDR. In both cases, the marsh provides an equivalent of US$ 5 million-worth of water purification infrastructure
- Energy experts who discussed trends and future scenarios agreed that continuing reliance on fossil fuels is not an option. They highlighted that less than 4% of the annual US$240 billion global energy subsidies is being allocated to renewable energy sources, whilst about two-thirds are spent on fossil fuels.
The IUCN gleefully underscores it’s findings with an “I-told-you-so”:
In the 1950s we predicted that the world’s natural resources and biodiversity were showing signs of serious degradation. Today, we have a body of evidence that is irrefutable and validates our hypothesis that the planet’s resources are used well beyond the levels of sustainability
As it happens, I’m currently reading Wil McCarthy’s “Bloom“; a post-apocalyptic nanotech novel, in which the gray goo has run rampant and consumed the Inner Solar System, leaving the remnants of humanity cowed and crowded in hollowed out satellites in Jovian space. Yarns like these are good for a quick scare, but somehow we tend very easily to forget that the planet’s worst enemies are ourselves, and that we’re much more likely to destroy the biosphere by plodding on with our mundane everyday actions than by releasing a superweapon.
On second thought, that’s not too unlikely either…
