Humans are destroying the great abundance of animal and plant diversity that aided the development of our civilization. Loss of biodiversity from all factors may be the greatest threat our species has faced in the modern age. This isn’t just a problem for environmentalists and biologists; this is a problem for all of us. Homo sapiens will likely not survive to see any recovery at the end of this, the Anthropocene extinction event. An inhospitable planet means that everything you care about, everything you advocate and work for, all of your hopes and dreams for your children and grandchildren are for naught. If we continue on our current trajectory, the just and egalitarian world for which you are tirelessly working will have no future.
Amphibians in peril
My wife recently volunteered for the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project, also known as the amphibian ark, in Gamboa, Panama. Many people do not understand the severity of the threat that amphibians face worldwide from the chytrid fungus, pesticide use, habitat loss, climate change, invasive species, and pollution. The fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, is capable of wiping out 50% of species and 80% of individuals in the wild. It is thought that humans played a significant role in the spread if this killer disease, by collecting and transporting the African Clawed Frog around the world in the research and pet trades.
At this point, the focus of the effort in Panama is no longer to preserve species in the wild, but to collect samples for breeding in captivity. This is absolutely a desperate measure. Even if chytrid is defeated in the wild, and breeding populations are available in captivity, there is no guarantee that a reintroduced species will be able to find their niche in a fundamentally altered ecosystem.
Organizations like the ark face many practical obstacles as well, from a lack of supplies, to a dearth of scientific study of the very frogs they are trying to save. For instance, my wife was to help sort through a shipment of 10,000 crickets from Florida that the center wanted to use as a breeding population. It was held up by customs in Panama, and only a few hundred of the crickets survived the journey. For now they must rely on hunting crickets at night to feed their frogs, many of which are critically endangered.
Donate to the amphibian ark here (where the pictures were taken)
NOVA episode Frogs: The Thin Green Line
Biodiversity
This year, 2010, is the International Year of Biodiversity. This is the target year for UN member states to achieve a significant reduction in the loss of species, almost two decades after the Convention on Biological Diversity was adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro by 191 parties. The United States is in the company of Andorra, the Holy See, and Somalia, as non-parties to the treaty, having failed to ratify it upon signing.
The necessity of this treaty highlights the fact that we are facing a worldwide extinction crisis, one that began with the loss of ice age megafauna, but is now fueled by human development. We are currently on track to lose half of all animal species on this planet by the year 2100. In case you missed that, I will repeat it: half of all forms of life on Earth may go extinct in 90 years, the geological blink of an eye. Earth has not witnessed such a cataclysmic event since the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction, 65 million years ago, coinciding with a massive asteroid impact, as well as significant volcanism on the Indian subcontinent.
If you think that we can thrive in spite of a mass extinction, that we cut ourselves away from the grand web of life long ago, think again.
We cannot continue to grow all of the food the world needs without genetic diversity to improve our crops and protect them against disease. The world’s fish stocks cannot be maintained without the diverse marine ecosystems that support them. The clean water you drink, the medicines you take, the wood that you use to build your home, are all inextricably linked to the availability of healthy ecosystems. So much of our global economy (about $33 trillion US), our livelihood, we owe to the rich biodiversity of our planet. We do not and cannot live in an ecological vacuum.
But perhaps these practical arguments aren’t enough to grab your attention. In that case, there is this:
Photo by Nick Hobgood
And this:
Photo by Dirk van der Made
And this:
And this:
And so much more.
It should be enough for people to know that the singular beauty of our home planet is in danger to warrant unprecedented action. I wonder sometimes at people who do not realize how lucky they are to be alive and conscious in such an amazing habitat, existing in spite of a harsh and chaotic universe.
But we continue to eat up the land, as our inner cities decay, carving up the landscape into more and more isolated pockets of wild. We pollute the skies, water, and land. The world population continues to grow in spite of dwindling resources, especially in the poorest countries. We are warming our planet, and changing the climatic zones of species all over the globe.
Scientists are concerned and aware of the decline in health of Earth’s ecosystems, and work is being done to preserve biodiversity. But they cannot do it alone. They need us to be aware and involved. They need our help. Contact your congresspeople, get involved, and talk to people. I guarantee that you will surprise some people with the statistics of biodiversity loss. You can also donate:
The Nature Conservancy
World Wildlife Fund