Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumClimate Change Is Not The ‘Biggest Killer’ Of Biodiversity
Climate Change Is Not The Biggest Killer Of Biodiversity
There are far more urgent threats, including exploitation and agriculture.
08/10/2016 08:21 pm ET | Updated 13 hours ago
Chris DAngelo
Associate Editor, HuffPost Hawaii
Global climate change, including sea-level rise, drought and extreme heat, is no doubt taking a toll on our planet ― but its far from the biggest threat humans have imposed on Earths plant and animal species.
A new analysis of threatened wildlife has provided a much-needed dose of perspective, showing that age-old human activities, including logging, hunting and farming, continue to pose a greater and more urgent threat.
Despite a growing tendency for media reports about threats to biodiversity to focus on climate change, over-exploitation and agriculture are by far the biggest drivers of biodiversity decline, the authors write in a comment published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
For the report, a team of scientists led by Sean Maxwell, a doctoral student at the University of Queensland, analyzed thousands of species on the International Union for Conservation of Natures Red List of Threatened Species.
More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/biggest-threat-to-biodiversity_us_57ab6ddce4b06e52746ede76?ir=World&utm_hp_ref=world
hunter
(38,349 posts)They make places like Chernobyl and Fukushima look desirable.
"Factory farm" meat and dairy production is ugly too. It's one of the reasons I'm mostly vegetarian.
But I'm also a hypocrite. We've got dogs we've adopted from the animal shelter. I don't expect our dogs to be vegetarian but I could never afford to feed them carefully sourced meat. One of the dogs is a born pig hunter, but I'm not willing to hunt pigs. Sorry dogs, you get to eat what chicken parts are left over when they turn chickens into McNuggets or fish into fish patties.
One of my nieces has been doing research similar to Sean Maxwell's. She's been comparing more traditional agricultural practices to modern more "productive" agriculture. Traditional agriculture is far less damaging to native species than high intensity high-herbicide-insecticide-fertilizer-flatten-everything farming and suburbia. Old-style farming, and old style residential areas, leave some land undisturbed; ditches, rocky fields, vacant lots, forested places, wetlands, and so on.
Factory farming uses every square meter of land. Everything is cleared and flattened, leaving no place for biological diversity. Affluent suburbs are hardly any better. Green front lawns and commercially maintained landscapes are dead zones.
I'll say it again, "Economic Productivity" as we now define it is a direct measure of the damage we are doing to the earth's natural environment and our own human spirit.
LouisvilleDem
(303 posts)The very first sentence sums up the situation consisely and accurately:
Global climate change, including sea-level rise, drought and extreme heat, is no doubt taking a toll on our planet ― but its far from the biggest threat humans have imposed on Earths plant and animal species.
I worry that the energy being expended on fighting climate change is taking resources away from other more important problems.