Animal Populations Shrunk an Average of 69% Over the Last Half-Century, Report Says (npr.org) 29
Global animal populations are declining, and we've got limited time to try to fix it. From a report: That's the upshot of a new report from the World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London, which analyzed years of data on thousands of wildlife populations across the world and found a downward trend in the Earth's biodiversity. According to the Living Planet Index, a metric that's been in existence for five decades, animal populations across the world shrunk by an average of 69% between 1970 and 2018. Not all animal populations dwindled, and some parts of the world saw more drastic changes than others. But experts say the steep loss of biodiversity is a stark and worrying sign of what's to come for the natural world. "The message is clear and the lights are flashing red," said WWF International Director General Marco Lambertini. According to the report's authors, the main cause of biodiversity loss is land-use changes driven by human activity, such as infrastructure development, energy production and deforestation. But the report suggests that climate change -- which is already unleashing wide-ranging effects on plant and animal species globally -- could become the leading cause of biodiversity loss if rising temperatures aren't limited to 1.5C.
Equitable Land Use (Score:1)
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How much of the earth do we deserve to do whatever we want with?
Given the definition of the world deserve, each person deserves to do whatever they are capable of doing while being restricted by what other people allow them to do, whether by the action or inaction of others. In practice this has resulted in nearly all land on the planet being divided among countries, and the governments of those countries being granted the right to do whatever they want with their land. In modern times I am not aware of any nation or groups of nations taking away those rights from anoth
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"Deserve" is a loaded word. May as well say 0% until we find someone worthy enough to "deserve" some.
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How much of the earth do we deserve to do whatever we want with?
The Bible is very clear on this matter: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
https://www.biblegateway.com/p... [biblegateway.com]
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How much of the earth do we deserve to do whatever we want with?
The Bible is very clear on this matter: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
https://www.biblegateway.com/p... [biblegateway.com]
Yep. Once again the Bible is full of shit. Badly written, often forged, shit for simpletons.
following this trend to it's obvious conclusion (Score:1)
the planet is dying and soon so will many of us, thanks to the selfsihness, greed and irresponsibility of our upper class, money is power, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, welcome to our black hole of a decendent society
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The planet is not dying. It'll be just fine. If something were to happen to us humans, things would get back on track pretty quickly, and the planet will be fine.
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And to out-pedant your pedantic reply, I'll point out that the planet is not alive, and therefore cannot be dying.
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The WWF said the disparity could be due to the fact that much of the development in North America and Europe occurred before 1970, when the data on biodiversity loss started."
Or the West is more actively trying to regulate its resource usage due to a more open press, vs. less effective (or more corrupt) governmental agencies in Latin America and Africa where governments aren't expected to be as honest with their citizens? (This doesn't explain the lower numbers in central Asia - presumably the stans and R
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Maybe the numbers are legitimate but they just started with a much lower number.
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I don't really feel you can honestly say the US/Western presses are "more open", at this point. Not after the past several years.
That's a perception only held in small demographics of westerners. The rest of the world... sees the West as a wee bit propagandistic.
Climate change isn't the real problem (Score:3)
Tigers in Asia aren't facing extinction because it's warmer outside...
It's land use and inconsistently checked human expansion.
The entire human generally feels like this planet is ours to use as we want (especially in JudeoChristian dogma - see God created the land for man, etc.). The land "are belong to us".
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Sorry I wasn't clear, but it's not bigotry (I'm Christian myself). The, "the world is ours to use as we wish because it was made for us," belief isn't the sole or root reason; It only feeds into the slothful, selfish side of every human - "the natural man" in all of us, as you alluded to with "mindless, destructive end".
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Tigers in Asia aren't facing extinction because it's warmer outside...
They did not claim that climate change has been the leading cause of the loss of biodiversity. They said if the climate warms by 1.5C or more it is likely to become the leading cause.
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".... God created the land for man, etc.). The land "are belong to us".
It is usually so that religion dogmas (especially the destructive ones) are just an excuse for humans desires, fears, greed etc, not the other way.
If you're referring to Genesis 1:28, it is a common interpretation that it more indicates that humans should take the stewardship of Earth and the Earthly creatures than to obliterate them as you suggests, e.g. in the New Living Translation one can find “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill t
/. Oglig (Score:1)
It's their fault for being delicious.
Screwed, blued, (Score:2)
and tattood.
Thanks for all the fish.
Here in West Sussex, England... (Score:1)
Re: Here in West Sussex, England... (Score:1)
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How do I edit my comment?
Post on a different website that allows editing. ;)
Soylent Green is People (Score:3)
I was re-watching it a couple of days ago, and larger animals having mostly died off was a given to that world. Spoiler alert!
And then at the end we learn that even the Plankton was decreasing, which led to a collapse of the food supply.
Bullshit (Score:2)
Chicken populations are at an all time high!
fake news (Score:2)
This is similar to the UC Berkeley paradox: they averaged the decline of a population of say 10 to only 1 (90%) with decline of a population of 1,000,000 to 999,999 (0%), to reach a conclusion of an overall decline of (90% + 0%)/2 = 45%. They claim it's a better measure because it measures "overall health." I claim it's a better measure because it gets more headlines and more grift for them.
Not cows (Score:2)