[poochee]

Originally Posted by lotuseclat79

21 new species in danger of extinction: UN convention.

Twenty-one animal species, including the cheetah, three dolphin families and an Egyptian vulture, were added to the list of those in danger of extinction by a UN conference that ended Friday.

-- Tom

[brandmantra]

Several types of sharks have been placed on the so-called list II of threatened species, including two families of Mako sharks in the Mediterranean whose population have fallen off by 96 percent in recent years due to overfishing.

The conference also adopted a resolution that aims to reduce noise pollution in oceans caused by increases in vessels, more seismic surveys and a new generation of military sonars.

Marine mammals that use sound, including whales and dolphins, are particularly affected by the noise.

A spokesman for the Whale and Dolphin Society welcomed measures on increased protection for marine species, but said governments had not committed enough money to conservation.

Our so called civilized society is responsible for these fatal incidents but we are still unchanged.

[ekim68]

Patagonia Indian tribe faces extinction

PUERTO EDEN, Chile (Reuters) - Hawking sea lion skin souvenir canoes at one of South America's most remote outposts, Francisco Arroyo is among the last members of a Patagonian tribe staring down the barrel of extinction.

The elderly Arroyo recalls wending the icy channels and fjords of southern Chile's Patagonia region with his father as a boy, tending a fire lit on dried earth on the bottom of their canoe and diving naked for giant mussels to survive.

With only an estimated 12-20 pure-blooded members of his nomadic Kawesqar tribe surviving, most of them elderly, another of the far-flung region's tribes will soon disappear.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scien...4B947E20081210

[uglath]

I find it more accurate to say that mankind itself is mankind's worst enemy. Our ability to alter the world around us superceeds the wisdom to judge the course of such actions and their possibly endless far reaching consequences. ie....a two year old with a gun. Silly psychotic monkeys.

[ekim68]

I call it the 'human condition'...Greed, power, and consumption are powerful emotions.
It's easy to address it and see it, but how does it get fixed? Certainly at a local or personal level we can deal with it for a small outcome, and we should.. But at a whole world wide level it's gonna have to take some creative thinking...

[uglath]

Fix it?
In my opinion the problem is with basic human nature. I think we'll have to evolve to overcome this.

[ekim68]

Originally Posted by uglath

Fix it?
In my opinion the problem is with basic human nature. I think we'll have to evolve to overcome this.

Agreed, but will it be in time before the resources run out?

[steppenwolf]

on Wikipedia they have a list of extinct European animals

[ekim68]

Zoo life is killing elephants: study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Zoo life can be deadly for elephants, researchers concluded in a study that found wild elephants live longer than their captive sisters.

The average African female elephant lived to be just under 17 in a zoo but female elephants living natural lives in Amboseli National Park in Kenya lived an average of 56 years, they found.

http://www.reuters.com/article/envir...4BB0TA20081212

[poochee]

Originally Posted by ekim68

Zoo life is killing elephants: study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Zoo life can be deadly for elephants, researchers concluded in a study that found wild elephants live longer than their captive sisters.

The average African female elephant lived to be just under 17 in a zoo but female elephants living natural lives in Amboseli National Park in Kenya lived an average of 56 years, they found.

http://www.reuters.com/article/envir...4BB0TA20081212

[ekim68]

Coral growth slows sharply on Great Barrier Reef

LONDON (Reuters) - Coral growth since 1990 in Australia's Great Barrier Reef has fallen to its lowest rate for 400 years, in a troubling sign for the world's oceans, researchers said on Thursday.

This could threaten a variety of marine ecosystems that rely on the reef and signal similar problems for other similar organisms worldwide, Glen De'ath and colleagues at the Australian Institute of Marine Science said.

The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral expanse, and like similar reefs worldwide is threatened by climate change and pollution.

http://www.reuters.com/article/envir...5010SD20090102

[poochee]

Northern rockhopper penguins near extinction
Study estimates a million birds were lost on two key islands
msnbc.com
updated 3:43 p.m. PT, Fri., Jan. 16, 2009


A new study has found that the population of Northern Rockhopper Penguin declined by 90percent over the last 50 years.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28696101/

[ekim68]

‘Ark’ races to rescue jungle frogs

As lethal fungus spreads, captive amphibians are bred for eventual return to the wild.

http://features.csmonitor.com/enviro...-jungle-frogs/

[poochee]

Originally Posted by ekim68

‘Ark’ races to rescue jungle frogs

As lethal fungus spreads, captive amphibians are bred for eventual return to the wild.

http://features.csmonitor.com/enviro...-jungle-frogs/

[ekim68]

Study: World's coral reefs likely to 'dissolve completely'

Unless carbon dioxide levels in the Earth's atmosphere and oceans are reduced, coral reefs around the world will start to dissolve completely in just a few decades, according to a new study published this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The impact on coral reefs is due to both ocean acidification (caused by the absorption of carbon dioxide into ocean water) as well as rising water temperatures. "Globally, each second, we dump over 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and, each second, about 300 tons of that carbon dioxide is going into the oceans," said study co-author Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology last month. "We can say with a high degree of certainty that all of this CO2 will make the oceans more acidic – that is simple chemistry taught to freshman college students."

http://blogs.usatoday.com/weather/20...worlds-co.html