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Earth Government United States

20% of America's Plants and Animals are At Risk of Extinction (usatoday.com) 56

Posted by EditorDavid from the endangered-species-action dept.
It was a half a century ago that America passed legislation to protect vanishing species and their habitats — and since then, more than five dozen species have recovered. Just one example: In 1963 only 417 nesting pairs of bald eagles were found in the lower 48 states. But today there's more than 300,000 bald eagles, writes USA Today. "[T]hough its future remains uncertain, many experts say it remains one of the nation's crowning achievements."

But 1,252 species are still listed as endangered in the U.S. — 486 animals, and 766 plants — with 417 more species categorized as "threatened." The perils of the changing climate add urgency to calls for increased funding and more protection. In North Carolina, for example, the rising sea steadily creeps over a refuge that's home to the sole remaining wild red wolf population. Off New England, warming waters forced changes in the foraging habits of the endangered North Atlantic right whale, putting the massive marine mammals in harm's way more often... One in 5 plant and animal species in the nation remain at risk of extinction, says Susan Holmes, executive director of the Endangered Species Coalition. "Loss of habitat and climate change are absolutely some of the most important threats that we have."

"We are at what I would say is a pivotal moment with the threats of climate change," she said. "We have to act faster than ever in order to ensure that these species are going to thrive."
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20% of America's Plants and Animals are At Risk of Extinction More

20% of America's Plants and Animals are At Risk of Extinction

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  • Long term. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Long term, all species on Earth are at 100% risk of extinction - including humans.

  • ...being delicious.

    [oblig.]

  • it gets better (Score:4, Interesting)

    by WindBourne ( 631190 ) on Sunday December 31, 2023 @04:16AM (#64118617) Journal
    invasive species, esp. in Florida and California is growing a quick rate. These are killing off many others .

    • invasive species, esp. in Florida and California is growing a quick rate. These are killing off many others .

      Who decides what is invasive though?

      I mean if it arrives here in a bird's belly, is it okay, but if it arrives here in a cargo ship hold, or a traveler's suitcase, it's not?

      Does it have to be motorized or jet powered transport that makes it invasive?

      • Who decides what is invasive though?

        Invasive is ANYTHING that is not native to there. It does not matter how it got there, only that the environment was not used to it.

  • I'm not really a greenie, but... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by bradley13 ( 1118935 ) on Sunday December 31, 2023 @05:22AM (#64118679) Homepage

    ...humans have taken over way too much land. Other species need a place to live, and our cities and monoculture farmland aren't it. We need to return a portion of all kinds of habitats to nature - not just the areas that we can't figure out a way to use.

    There's a campaign along these lines, seeking to protect 30% of all areas for nature. [campaignfornature.org]

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      ...humans have taken over way too much land. Other species need a place to live, and our cities and monoculture farmland aren't it. We need to return a portion of all kinds of habitats to nature - not just the areas that we can't figure out a way to use.

      Thanks for agreeing to give up your home for the sake of woodland creatures.

    • Bitch Gaia has been the enemy of human progress since  hungry  Neoliths raped her wetlands for clams and mollusks. Make no mistake Bosco, unless you are a tree-hugging , snake-charming green-beaner  NATURE is not your pal.
  • only the ones you fat bastards plan on eating.

  • Asking for a friend... A lot of Europeans would regard this as good news ;)

  • I don't think there's much you can do about extinctions. "Stop killing them" works, but "get rid of that human habitat that was built over the other species' habitat" isn't going to happen.

    Likewise, there's nothing we're both willing and able to do so far to compensate for rapid climate change.

    Wherever it's our fault rather than natural cycles, we have options for reducing the cull rate. It remains to be seen how much we're willing to do, and how much trouble we're going to have for not having done enough

    • "Stop building endless suburban sprawl" also works.

      • Packing people into ever-denser urban environments doesn't seem like a beautiful future to me... and no matter how densely you pack people, there is a minimum amount of acreage required to support them. You might put a lot of people in cities, but the land around that city is going to get converted from its natural state for farming and resource extraction to support those people.

        I'd really rather we stop with the eternal population growth nonsense and take our falling birthrates as a blessing not to be m

        • AFAIK, the fact that urban living is more efficient than suburban or rural isn't credibly disputed. Some people may not like or agree with it but that's not the same thing as providing coherent, cohesive, rational, evidence-informed arguments.

          Personally, I prefer to walk or catch public transport & to travel shorter distances to do the things I want to do. I also enjoy having family, friends, acquaintances, & random strangers nearby simply because I'm a social animal & enjoy the company of p

          • Your first paragraph was OK, but your second paragraph was not the same thing as providing coherent, cohesive, rational, evidence-informed arguments.

            You undermined yourself by including it and effectively admitting that how people want to live is important... which was my point. I'm not an ant in a hive, and city living makes me feel homicidal.

          • Efficiency is not a value , but a perversion. Ask any  productive craftsman ... then ask any blo-jobbing globalist C-suite.
          • By all means you do you. Many other people don't like being packed together like ants, not even to save the world in their imaginations. They will do them also, as it should be.
            • I don't see anyone "packed together like ants" around here or anywhere else I've lived. Some cities are admittedly a bit depressing, especially in north America, but there are plenty of delightful cities around the world.
    • The endangered species list also would be more of a reliable metric over time if there was a standard for evaluating whether a newly identified species has a viable population to begin with before it could then become listed as endangered if its population falls. In the last few decades there seems to have been a drive toward finding the one rare insect or frog nobody knew existed and listing it as endangered. It risks masking the trend line we need to be concerned about with noisy data.

      To put it anothe

  • 30 percent (Score:3)

    by noshellswill ( 598066 ) on Sunday December 31, 2023 @11:08AM (#64119157)
    More than 30% of all American plants deserve to be exterminated. They are useless, ugly and snap at my toes when I walk barefoot. Think sandspurs as an example.  What we need  are  coal-burning weed-wakkerz  with a bad attitude and lots of fossil fuel to feed them .

  • habitat (Score:2, Insightful)

    by groobly ( 6155920 )

    The primary cause of species extinction is habitat destruction. The primary cause of habitat destruction is population increase. One would think that those who are worried about species extinction would also be worried about millions of people streaming unchecked into the US.

    • The lefty Pussyville pouterz who support mass migration into America do it cause they believe productive straight white Christians need to be destroyed. The corruption and perversity of post-mod French & Brit cultures cannot be overstated .. like EBOLA the infection spread ... Population invasion is a sure way of getting culture collapse. That stops if .... white USA "natives" start butchering invaders and hanging citizen traitors from cherry trees.

  • We're still in the low hanging fruit phase. As they say, it's the last 10% that takes 90% of the work.

  • .. and you've only put 20% at risk?

    That's really poor efficiency.

  • It should be "20% of Plants and Animals in the US are At Risk of Extinction". I know, I know, it's my pet peeve, but America is an ambiguous word. For some people it refers to a whole continent that spans two hemispheres, and for others it refers to just one country.

    Using the soecific name of the country is a simple way to avoid annoying misunderstandings.

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