Grandpa and I recently took our two youngest grandchildren to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., primarily to see the pandas, which are Grandpa’s favorite animal. We learned all about how few pandas there are in the world and the efforts to increase their number. We looked around at other animals that are also near extinction. We did not know nor thought of the reality that more animals than we ever imagined are disappearing from our planet.
When we got home, the Wall Street Journal, September 30, 2014, had an article, “Wildlife Numbers Drop by Half Since 1970,” about a new and comprehensive study of the earth’s wildlife population. Please read the entire article and the charts that accompany the article.
The author of the article, Gautam Naik, says the decline is greater than previously thought and tells us:
The new study was conducted by scientists at the wildlife group WWF, the Zoological Society of London and other organizations. Based on an analysis of thousands of vertebrate species, it concludes that overall animal populations fell 52% between 1970 and 2010.
The decline was seen everywhere-in rivers, on land and in the seas-and is mainly the result of increased habitat destruction, commercial fishing and hunting, the report said. Climate change also is believed to be a factor, though its consequences are harder to measure. . . .
The fastest declines were seen in rivers and other freshwaters systems, where populations fell 76% since 1970. By comparison, terrestrial and marine populations each fell 39%. While biodiversity continues to decline in both temperate and tropical parts of the world, the downward trend is greater in the tropics. The most dramatic decline was in Latin America, where overall populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish fell 83%. Asia-Pacific wasn’t far behind.
A future plan was for there to be a family trip to the Galapagos when the youngest grandchildren got a little older. By the time we get there, with the most dramatic decline in Latin America, I wonder if the animals we want to see are going to be so hard to find as the tigers were when we went on safari in India. This Grandma is very concerned. You do not have to be a genius to realize that our food source is in trouble and the balance of nature is in trouble. Gautam Naik concluded his article with:
The WWF report also tries to measure the state of humanity’s ability to live in a sustainable way. With the planet’s population expected to swell by 2.4 billion people by 2050, the challenge of providing enough food, water and energy will be difficult.
The report calculates a global “ecological footprint,” which measures the area required to supply the ecological goods and services humans use. It concludes that humanity currently needs the regenerative capacity of 1.5 Earths to supply these goods and services each year.
“This ‘overshoot’ is possible because-for now-we can cut trees faster than they mature, harvest more fish than the oceans can replenish, or emit more carbon into the atmosphere than the forests and oceans can absorb,” the report said. Since the 1990s, humans have reached that overshoot by the ninth month of each year, it adds. “It’s a very loud wake-up call,” said Carter Roberts, chief executive officer of WWF U.S., in an interview. “As we lose natural capital, people lose the ability to feed themselves and to provide for their families-it increases instability exponentially. When that happens, it ceases to be a local problem and becomes a global one.”
The scientists are concerned about only 36 years from now! I do not think I will make it to age 104, but I do want my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to have a sustainable planet upon which to live.
Recently, a news commentator, and I cannot remember which one, said that we, in the United States, are so focused on ISIS and Ebola that we are missing the bigger threat to our lives – climate change. This Grandma did not think about climate change in relationship to animal survival, but now I realize that their survival is tied to ours.
Yes, we probably will be able to take our great-grandchildren to a zoo to see more and more extinct animals. That is the least of our trouble about the fact that animals are disappearing on planet earth in great numbers at great speed. We have so much overload about threats to our very survival each day in the news. Future scant food sources cannot help but foment conflict in the world, in addition to threats by ISIS and Ebola, and what else may turn up tomorrow. This Grandma just hopes that we humans will be around when our great-grandchildren are adults.
I recently heard this story about Albert Einstein. In 1949, after the Second World War and six years before his death, Albert Einstein, considered the most influential physicist of the 20th century and a Nobel Prize winner, was asked what he thought the weapons of World War III would be and is quoted as saying, “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
With little
Joy,
Mema
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