Looking at extinction

Looking at extinction

Washington Post: A series of new reports warns of a grim future for the planet’s flora and fauna. Most recently, the alarm was sounded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which last week issued a study with the chilling news that 25 percent of the world’s wild mammals face extinction attributable to human activities.

The IUCN survey took five years to complete and involved 1,700 experts in 130 countries. And here’s how exhaustive it is: All 5,487 species of wild mammals identified since 1500 are covered, with 1,141 identified as in danger of becoming extinct. Nearly 45,000 species of plants and animals have been evaluated for the IUCN’s “Red List,” and 38 percent of those are threatened with extinction.

The IUCN’s work adds to the body of evidence that the biodiversity of the planet is under threat. A 2008 European Commission report reported that hundreds of medicinal plant species, whose naturally occurring chemicals make up the basis of more than 50 percent of all prescription drugs, are threatened with extinction. Scientists revealed in the journal Science in August that oxygen-depleted marine “dead zones,” where nothing more than microbes can live, had doubled about every 10 years since the 1960s worldwide. The Chesapeake Bay has a dead zone.

Governmental bodies are starting to take notice. Last month, the United Nations pledged to try to “significantly reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010” as part of its Millennium Development Goals. In June, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution at the behest of Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Richard G. Lugar, R-Ind., that calls on the United States to lead an international effort to identify and protect critically endangered regions around the world.