The eradication of poverty has been on the international agenda for many decades and yet, although some progress has been made, the problem persists with the gap between the world’s rich and poor widening at an alarming rate. The UN Development and Environment Programmes jointly launched the Poverty-Environment Initiative in 2005 to help countries integrate […]
Extinction
Meat Eating is Driving the Extinction of Life on Earth
Crops that would otherwise feed billions of people are fed to industrially reared animals that we then consume as meat or for their skin or fur. Every day wild habitats are being converted to make way for more industrial agriculture to feed livestock to satisfy our carnivorous appetite, but not only.
Truth, the First Casualty of Ecocide on Earth
We say we love for our children while we destroy their future. We continue to lie to the younger generations, hiding from them the truth about the fatal consequences of our actions. Scientific discoveries decades old have yet to reach educational institutions and we continue to teach outdated and infantile notions.
Species: How Do They Become Extinct
A species becomes extinct when all the individuals in every existing population on Earth die. When this happens that species is gone forever. We have already exterminated or severely degraded substantially more than half of the populations of all species and their wild habitats. It starts with the arrival of people on the scene.
Chinese paddlefish – Extinct 2010
The Chinese paddlefish is now extinct. It existed before flowering plants, bamboo and the pandas. It reached three metres in length. They could weigh up to 300kg and managed to survive the 5th mass extinction of life on Earth that occurred 66 million years ago. The Chinese paddlefish and its ancestors had been around for 150 million years
Wildlife and Ecosystems in Crisis – The Earth Needs You Now
People have killed 60% of all animals on Earth since 1970 and burnt or cut down half the forests on the planet in the last 100 years. It is predicted that by 2050 there will no longer be any viable fish populations in the seas and oceans. The warming of the atmosphere and oceans, caused by toxic greenhouse gas emissions, has reached such high levels that unless we stop burning fossil fuels by 2030 it is certain that future generations will have to face irreversible extreme weather conditions as well as unprecedented scorching heat, freezing cold, drought, flooding and cyclones.
Steller’s Sea Cow – Extinct in 1768
Steller’s sea cow was first seen by Europeans in 18th century around the Commander Islands in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia. Fossil records show that its range was more extensive during the Pleistocene epoch (from 2.6 million to 11.7 thousand years ago) and its population numbers had been much …
Mammals on Death Row – Extinction is Forever
The period of time since the last mass extinction 66 million years ago, that killed the dinosaurs, is known as the Age of Mammals. Our own species is a child of this age. The study shows that it would take three to five million years for nature to recover the anticipated mammal species losses of the next 50 years.
Extinction – It is Real, It is Now, It is Forever
We must appreciate that when we speak of extinction of life, this is forever and there is no going back and that our own existence today, as well as the existence of all other sentient life, the existence of the life supporting planetary ecosystems, has been billions of years in the making.