Scientists warn a million species at risk of extinction

[webfact]

Scientists warn a million species at risk of extinction

By Gus Trompiz

 

FILE PHOTO: A man snorkels in an area called the "Coral Gardens" near Lady Elliot Island, on the Great Barrier Reef, northeast of Bundaberg town in Queensland, Australia, June 11, 2015. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo

 

PARIS (Reuters) - One million animal and plant species are at imminent risk of extinction due to humankind's relentless pursuit of economic growth, scientists said on Monday in a landmark report on the devastating impact of modern civilization on the natural world.

 

Scientists made an impassioned appeal to governments and businesses worldwide to confront "vested interests" they said were blocking reforms in farming, energy and mining needed to save the Earth's ecosystems.

 

"If we want to leave a world for our children and grandchildren that has not been destroyed by human activity, we need to act now," said Robert Watson, who chaired the study, produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which groups 130 countries, including the United States, Russia and China.

 

"If we do not act now, many of the million threatened species will become as extinct as the dodo on this tie," Watson told a news conference in Paris, gesturing to his tie, which bore a design of the flightless bird.

 

Known as the Global Assessment, the report found that up to one million of Earth's estimated eight million plant, insect and animal species is at risk of extinction, many within decades.

 

It identified industrial farming and fishing as major drivers of the crisis, with the current rate of species extinction tens to hundreds of times higher than the average over the last 10 million years.

 

Climate change caused by burning the coal, oil and gas produced by the fossil fuel industry is exacerbating the losses, the report found.

 

"We are facing a human extinction crisis," said Hoda Baraka of 350.org, a climate change campaign group based in the United States. "We must work together to push back against the fossil fuel industry fuelling the climate crisis and for long-lasting and meaningful change."

 

INTENSE NEGOTIATIONS

The largest, most comprehensive study ever undertaken of the conjoined fates of human wellbeing and the natural world, the report was finalised in Paris after intense negotiations between IPBES members that concluded at 0300 a.m. on Saturday.

 

The report represents a cornerstone of an emerging body of research that suggests the world may need to embrace a new "post-growth" form of economics if it is to avert the existential risks posed by the cascading effects of pollution, habitat destruction and climate change.

 

Compiled over three years and based on 15,000 scientific papers, the report identified a range of risks, from the disappearance of insects vital for pollinating food crops, to the destruction of coral reefs that support fish populations and the loss of medicinal plants.

 

The threatened list includes more than 40 percent of amphibian species, almost 33 percent of reef-forming corals, sharks and shark relatives, and more than a third of all marine mammals. The picture was less clear for insect species, but a tentative estimate suggests 10 per cent could become extinct.

 

Publication of the report has coincided with an upsurge in environmental activism by groups including Extinction Rebellion, whose civil disobedience campaign forced the British parliament this month to declare a climate emergency.

 

The report's blunt language echoed the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which said in October that profound economic and social changes would be needed to curb greenhouse gases quickly enough to avert the most devastating consequences of a warming world.

 

The findings will also add to pressure for countries to agree bold action to protect wildlife at a major conference on biodiversity due to take place in China towards the end of next year, reinforcing a growing recognition among policy-makers that the extinction and climate crises are deeply interconnected.

 

"We have reconfigured dramatically the life of the planet," said Eduardo Brondizio, a professor of anthropology at Indiana University in the United States who co-chaired the report.

 

"The key message: business as usual has to end."

 

(Writing by Matthew Green; Editing by Frances Kerry and Gareth Jones)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-05-07

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[Emdog]

"The key message: business as usual has to end."

My view is it won't, until it is too late.

[BritManToo]

Who cares, I'll be dead long before most of those species.

[utalkin2me]

THey are smart, they are scientists. So.... why don't they tackle the problem by doing something that can actually work. Big money contributions, favors, lobbying all has to be curtailed. It is the only way. They need to just shut up and push for that... they are supposed to be the brightest people so figure out a way. Coming out and saying "this is bad" is obviously not going to work, you would think they know this. 

[VocalNeal]

Scientists?

 

Grants running out for Global Warming/Climate change studies? 

 

Now they will have to mention Global Assessment instead.

[connda]

The Earth as survived cataclysmic events in the past that surely wiped out millions of species.  New species fill in the evolutionary gaps, the Earth heals, and life goes on, albeit, in different forms than before.

Man's a temporary blip on Earth's radar.  Eventually a near-space object hit, Coronal Mass Ejection, super-volcano, or magnetic pole flip scourges the planet's surface again - and the Earth resets once more.  

Most humans have a built-in continuity bias - they think they are actually in charge and it all goes on forever.  <laughs>   The only constant in this universe is change.  At the planetary level it's often an extinction class event for surface dwellers - like humans. 

[Nyezhov]

2 minutes ago, connda said:

At the planetary level it's often an extinction class event for surface dwellers - like humans

Wake up and party like its your last day!

 

Cuz it might be.

[spidermike007]

And Trump and his band of clowns does not care one iota. Likely, they do not even believe it, nor do they even read the warnings. Reckless, careless, indifferent, ignorant, callous, money hungry, servants to the corporations and the lobbyists who are stripping the planet before our very eyes. The jungles? Who needs them? The ocean? Who needs them? The polar caps. Unnecessary. The creatures? Why bother? We are the only important creature. We are bigger than the ocean. We are more important than nature. Just ask Mike Pence. He is the science expert. 

 

Climate change is real. We can see it all around us. Ice core samples from the last 500,000 years prove the carbon dioxide levels are far higher than they have ever been, so this is not a cycle, as alot of lazy minds will conveniently claim. And the climate change is being caused by man. Wake up. We need to polar caps. We need these creatures. We need to oceans. We need to jungles and forests, alot more than a 3% gain in GDP! 

 

Lock up all lobbyists. What we really need is a presidential candidate who says up front, I am only going to run for four years. If you elect me, I promise not to run again. I do not want 8 years. I will have alot of enemies after my agenda is passed. I will ask the secret service to assault any lobbyist found within 200 meters of the White House. I am interested in improving the nation for the people, not for the corporations. They already have a very comfortable situation thanks for Trump and Obama. 

Edited May 7, 2019 by spidermike007

[attrayant]

1 hour ago, utalkin2me said:

They are smart, they are scientists. So.... why don't they tackle the problem by doing something that can actually work.

 

Too many people think science is out to kill them.  I am being totally serious here.  Scientists come up with a way to grow twice as many crops on half as much land, and people scream "POISON!" and "CANCER!" even though cancer mortality is on the steady decline.  People are impervious to facts and evidence.

 

Ironically, the "industrial farming" decried by the OP is the very thing that has allowed us to become such a successful species.  But it seems like we don't want to put the brakes on it now.  Going back to smallholder farms isn't the solution unless you want to see 40% of the population working in the farming sector.  Ain't nobody got time for that.

 

1 hour ago, utalkin2me said:

Big money contributions, favors, lobbying all has to be curtailed. It is the only way. They need to just shut up and push for that... they are supposed to be the brightest people so figure out a way. Coming out and saying "this is bad" is obviously not going to work, you would think they know this. 

 

The USA has the National Science Foundation, which was created to advice congress on complex scientific issues.  It was they, in concert with NASA and NOAA that guided congress and world governments to enact policies to curtail the use of chlorofluorocarbons, which deplete atmospheric ozone.  Now the NSF has become useless as congressmen stand on the floor of their chambers holding up snowballs to "prove" that climate change isn't real.

 

Elect scientists to positions of political power.  We took a good first step in 2016, electing a dozen candidates with backgrounds in science, technology, engineering or medicine to the house of representatives.  That's the only thing that will work.

[attrayant]

2 hours ago, utalkin2me said:

They are smart, they are scientists. So.... why don't they tackle the problem by doing something that can actually work.

 

Too many people think science is out to kill them.  I am being totally serious here.  Scientists come up with a way to grow twice as many crops on half as much land, and people scream "POISON!" and "CANCER!" even though cancer mortality is on the steady decline.  People are impervious to facts and evidence.

 

Ironically, the "industrial farming" decried by the OP is the very thing that has allowed us to become such a successful species.  But it seems like we don't want to put the brakes on it now.  Going back to smallholder farms isn't the solution unless you want to see 40% of the population working in the farming sector.  Ain't nobody got time for that.

 

Quote

Big money contributions, favors, lobbying all has to be curtailed. It is the only way. They need to just shut up and push for that... they are supposed to be the brightest people so figure out a way. Coming out and saying "this is bad" is obviously not going to work, you would think they know this. 

 

The USA has the National Science Foundation, which was created to advise congress on complex scientific issues.  It was they, in concert with NASA and NOAA that guided congress and world governments to enact policies to curtail the use of chlorofluorocarbons, which deplete atmospheric ozone.  Now the NSF has become useless as congressmen stand on the floor of their chambers holding up snowballs to "prove" that climate change isn't real.

 

Elect scientists to positions of political power.  We took a good first step in 2016, electing a dozen candidates with backgrounds in science, technology, engineering or medicine to the house of representatives.  That's the only thing that will work.

 

 

Edited May 7, 2019 by attrayant

[connda]

26 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Lock up all lobbyists.

I'm with you on that. 

[Tug]

So many sad selfish posters we need to take care of our earth sorry guys but I do care for future generations I do care for wild life 

[spidermike007]

4 minutes ago, Tug said:

So many sad selfish posters we need to take care of our earth sorry guys but I do care for future generations I do care for wild life 

I sure wish this current administration felt the same way. The lack of regard is frightening. Zero regard for future generations. That is the way Trump rolls. Insularity is his game.

[Scott]

Off-topic post reported and removed.  

 

[nauseus]

58 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

 

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

And Trump and his band of clowns does not care one iota. Likely, they do not even believe it, nor do they even read the warnings. Reckless, careless, indifferent, ignorant, callous, money hungry, servants to the corporations and the lobbyists who are stripping the planet before our very eyes. The jungles? Who needs them? The ocean? Who needs them? The polar caps. Unnecessary. The creatures? Why bother? We are the only important creature. We are bigger than the ocean. We are more important than nature. Just ask Mike Pence. He is the science expert. 

 

Climate change is real. We can see it all around us. Ice core samples from the last 500,000 years prove the carbon dioxide levels are far higher than they have ever been, so this is not a cycle, as alot of lazy minds will conveniently claim. And the climate change is being caused by man. Wake up. We need to polar caps. We need these creatures. We need to oceans. We need to jungles and forests, alot more than a 3% gain in GDP! 

 

Lock up all lobbyists. What we really need is a presidential candidate who says up front, I am only going to run for four years. If you elect me, I promise not to run again. I do not want 8 years. I will have alot of enemies after my agenda is passed. I will ask the secret service to assault any lobbyist found within 200 meters of the White House. I am interested in improving the nation for the people, not for the corporations. They already have a very comfortable situation thanks for Trump and Obama. 

Climate change is real but it is both lazy and wrong to say that CO₂ levels are higher than they have ever been. However, CO₂ and temperatures have risen through recent history and at least part of the reason for both of these rises is man, his activities, and especially his rise in numbers.  

 

I agree about not needing lobbyists and protecting our environment- an ever rising global GDP at the cost of all else is just unsustainable - something will break if nothing is done.

[Dek Somboon]

3 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Who cares, I'll be dead long before most of those species.

You sound like my Brit brother-in-law and typical baby-boomer: after a lifelong of the greatest party ever on Planet Earth, you’re about to check out of the venue and couldn’t give a rat’s ass about lending a helping hand with some of the cleanup, because YOU PAID FOR YOUR ENTRANCE TO THE PARTY! Right - so let the volunteers do all the work...????????

Edited May 7, 2019 by Dek Somboon

[Dek Somboon]

3 hours ago, utalkin2me said:

THey are smart, they are scientists. So.... why don't they tackle the problem by doing something that can actually work. Big money contributions, favors, lobbying all has to be curtailed. It is the only way. They need to just shut up and push for that... they are supposed to be the brightest people so figure out a way. Coming out and saying "this is bad" is obviously not going to work, you would think they know this. 

No they don’t. Because they are part of the United Nations, a toothless and useless organisation that has outlived its purpose.

 

Moreover they are sitting in an office in Bonn, Germany (not New York or Geneva = second-class UN organisation...) and most likely can now lean back, relax and take longer coffee breaks now that they’ve met the stressful deadline to publish their report... Their crappy website speaks volumes: https://www.ipbes.net/

 

Cutting all funding to the UN and tossing it into the dustbin of history (together with the League of Nations) would be the first and most important step toward a solution and removing (a GIANT) part

of the problem. Other less bureaucratic, smaller and far more effective organisations that are actually creating positive (or mitigating negative) change with boots on the ground will then be able to take over, without being bullied by the powerful corporate-influenced agendas of the UN, the IUCN, WWF and Co.

[Grusa]

Gaia always wins-eventually. Homo Sapiens has not existed for long, and will not remain for long - in terms of geological time. There may have been earlier versions, now extinct. There may come later versions - they will become extinct. The Earth will continue to rotate uncaring, until it too dies, who knows how, aeons from now.

 

I seriously doubt that humanity will last long enough to be able to develop a lifeboat so it can abandon the planet. Meantime, there is a problem......too many people. Gaias' answer? A cull. Generally known as "war", sometimes "plague" or "famine", occasionally "genocide". And of course, "natural disaster". All normal and continuing processes to cull the population and reduce the pressure of numbers. Wring your hands, blame politicians, or industrialists, or terrorists, religious extremists, insane dictators, you name it - it is all Gaia at work, protecting herself. Not even from You, individually or collectively, but from the pressures put upon her. It is mere hubris to believe you matter.

[jak2002003]

Seems the simple answer would be just to stop the huge birth rates.  If there was a way to sterilise each woman after she had one baby (could do it at the same time as she was in the hospital having her first baby).

 

If the human population was to keep decreasing we could keep polluting the planet, using fossil fuels, farming, fishing etc, as all the damage and pollution would thus also decreases as our population went down.

 

But, for some reason this is a taboo subject and inhuman for many.  Usually because of religion or countries governments wanting more and more people to make a bigger army and for war.

 

 

 

 

[Dek Somboon]

2 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

And Trump and his band of clowns does not care one iota. Likely, they do not even believe it, nor do they even read the warnings. Reckless, careless, indifferent, ignorant, callous, money hungry, servants to the corporations and the lobbyists who are stripping the planet before our very eyes. The jungles? Who needs them? The ocean? Who needs them? The polar caps. Unnecessary. The creatures? Why bother? We are the only important creature. We are bigger than the ocean. We are more important than nature. Just ask Mike Pence. He is the science expert. 

 

Climate change is real. We can see it all around us. Ice core samples from the last 500,000 years prove the carbon dioxide levels are far higher than they have ever been, so this is not a cycle, as alot of lazy minds will conveniently claim. And the climate change is being caused by man. Wake up. We need to polar caps. We need these creatures. We need to oceans. We need to jungles and forests, alot more than a 3% gain in GDP! 

 

Lock up all lobbyists. What we really need is a presidential candidate who says up front, I am only going to run for four years. If you elect me, I promise not to run again. I do not want 8 years. I will have alot of enemies after my agenda is passed. I will ask the secret service to assault any lobbyist found within 200 meters of the White House. I am interested in improving the nation for the people, not for the corporations. They already have a very comfortable situation thanks for Trump and Obama. 

Nice vision, but for that to happen politicians would have to get elected for 25 years/an entire generation with a performance-based salary,

bonuses and cuts depending on whether or not they can get their thumbs out. (And with the promise of being lined up in front of a firing squadron in case they badly screw up...)

 

Until then, Holy Infinite Economic Growth and GDP are our main religion. And all the invisible men in the sky of all other religions will of course save us from our own extinction!

Edited May 7, 2019 by Dek Somboon

[Dek Somboon]

1 hour ago, attrayant said:

 

Too many people think science is out to kill them.  I am being totally serious here.  Scientists come up with a way to grow twice as many crops on half as much land, and people scream "POISON!" and "CANCER!" even though cancer mortality is on the steady decline.  People are impervious to facts and evidence.

 

Ironically, the "industrial farming" decried by the OP is the very thing that has allowed us to become such a successful species.  But it seems like we don't want to put the brakes on it now.  Going back to smallholder farms isn't the solution unless you want to see 40% of the population working in the farming sector.  Ain't nobody got time for that.

 

 

The USA has the National Science Foundation, which was created to advice congress on complex scientific issues.  It was they, in concert with NASA and NOAA that guided congress and world governments to enact policies to curtail the use of chlorofluorocarbons, which deplete atmospheric ozone.  Now the NSF has become useless as congressmen stand on the floor of their chambers holding up snowballs to "prove" that climate change isn't real.

 

Elect scientists to positions of political power.  We took a good first step in 2016, electing a dozen candidates with backgrounds in science, technology, engineering or medicine to the house of representatives.  That's the only thing that will work.

The real scientists would all end up resigning like Jim Hansen, especially if on a daily basis they have to deal with retards like the Snowball Senator...

[BritManToo]

11 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

But, for some reason this is a taboo subject and inhuman for many.  Usually because of religion or countries governments wanting more and more people to make a bigger army and for war.

No, it's generally because only white folk give up their children.

Our numbers are already decreasing, along with the Japanese and Thais.

[spidermike007]

1 hour ago, nauseus said:

 

Climate change is real but it is both lazy and wrong to say that CO₂ levels are higher than they have ever been. However, CO₂ and temperatures have risen through recent history and at least part of the reason for both of these rises is man, his activities, and especially his rise in numbers.  

 

I agree about not needing lobbyists and protecting our environment- an ever rising global GDP at the cost of all else is just unsustainable - something will break if nothing is done.

We are not making this stuff up. There is ample credible evidence of such.

 

Ancient air bubbles trapped in ice enable us to step back in time and see what Earth's atmosphere, and climate, were like in the distant past. They tell us that levels of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere are higher than they have been at any time in the past 400,000 years. During ice ages, CO₂ levels were around 200 parts per million (ppm), and during the warmer interglacial periods, they hovered around 280 ppm (see fluctuations in the graph). In 2013, CO₂ levels surpassed 400 ppm for the first time in recorded history. This recent relentless rise in CO₂ shows a remarkably constant relationship with fossil-fuel burning, and can be well accounted for based on the simple premise that about 60 percent of fossil-fuel emissions stay in the air. 

Today, we stand on the threshold of a new geologic era, which some term the "Anthropocene", one where the climate is very different to the one our ancestors knew. 

If fossil-fuel burning continues at a business-as-usual rate, such that humanity exhausts the reserves over the next few centuries, CO₂ will continue to rise to levels of order of 1500 ppm. The atmosphere would then not return to pre-industrial levels even tens of thousands of years into the future. This graph not only conveys the scientific measurements, but it also underscores the fact that humans have a great capacity to change the climate and planet.

 

https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/24/graphic-the-relentless-rise-of-carbon-dioxide/

[Dek Somboon]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

I sure wish this current administration felt the same way. The lack of regard is frightening. Zero regard for future generations. That is the way Trump rolls. Insularity is his game.

Nearly all politicians all over

the world suck, because they are elected by ignorant,

greedy, selfish citizens who are more interested in the People section of the news and what the Kardashians, Beyoncé and Jay-Z are up to, rather than boring, serious sideline news like this.

 

It’s just that Americans get VIP front-row seats to the World Freak Show.????

[luk AJ]

The scientists should stop complaining and actually do something.
1) allow nuclear energy until clean energy is available
2) develop more efficient food with less environmental impact based on algae.
3) develop alternative for plastic, going back to paper and glass is not the answer.
4) stop population growth, (this will be the most difficult) people are free to reproduce at will and world economies need growth.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[Dek Somboon]

35 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

Seems the simple answer would be just to stop the huge birth rates.  If there was a way to sterilise each woman after she had one baby (could do it at the same time as she was in the hospital having her first baby).

 

If the human population was to keep decreasing we could keep polluting the planet, using fossil fuels, farming, fishing etc, as all the damage and pollution would thus also decreases as our population went down.

 

But, for some reason this is a taboo subject and inhuman for many.  Usually because of religion or countries governments wanting more and more people to make a bigger army and for war.

 

 

 

 

Indeed, though it is far easier for us men to get the snip instead of tubal ligation for women. Even though I agree it’s mostly women who of

course for evolutionary survival have not much more in their minds than shopping for fashion to attract the alpha male - who will eventually give them children, so they can go out and do more shopping for their home and their new children. Meanwhile, we dumb men just feel like banging a couple of those hot chicks from the mall or that cute little saleswoman.

 

We like to think we’re highly developed

with all our technology, when in reality we’re still so primitive (heck we still grow wisdom teeth ). We’re barely out of the jungle and already about to vanish...

[Dek Somboon]

“We are on a nice downward glide. I call it circling the drain… And the circles get smaller and smaller and faster and faster, if you watch the sink empty... Huish! And we'll be gone. And that's fine. I welcome it. I wish I could live 1000 years to watch it happen. From a distance — so I can see it all.”

 

RIP George Carlin????????

[BritManToo]

30 minutes ago, Dek Somboon said:

Nearly all politicians all over

the world suck, because they are elected by ignorant,

The Thai government doesn't look any better to me ....... and nobody elected them.

Same in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

[Dek Somboon]

34 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

The Thai government doesn't look any better to me ....... and nobody elected them.

Same in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

Of course they’re no better. Yet the Thais passively accept their fate (or destiny) as long as they can continue eating somtam, driving (modified) oversized pickup trucks and SUVs (that belch out black smoke) and being lobotomized by all the mindless crap they watch on TV.

 

Meanwhile, the very LAST THING any government in the world would want are caring, courageous, intelligent citizens capable of critical thinking, questioning and doing something about the status quo leading us at 200 miles an hour along a highway to hell - with a nice, BIG wide reinforced concrete wall at the end... Nope, everyone’s too busy having somtam and Krispy Kreme doughnuts at Terminal 21. (I love’em!)

 

Each time wifey comes back from shopping with yet more SINGLE-USE PLASTIC bags when we’ve got a bunch of reusable ones hanging on the door handle, I feel obliged

to remind her:

 

- Darling, you remember complaining about the elections and the results? Well this is why you don’t have a proper government. Because if

you have a nation of mostly greedy, selfish, uneducated people, you will get the same level of politicians. Jub jub.????

 

- Forgot ka...????‍♀️

 

Rinse & repeat ad nauseam.????????‍♂️????????????

Edited May 7, 2019 by Dek Somboon

[NCC1701A]

5 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Who cares, I'll be dead long before most of those species.

you are going to reincarnate as a soi 6 bar girl.