PARIS: Earth's animal and plant species are vanishing at unprecedented rates, evidence that the planet is facing a tsunami of mass extinction, experts gathering for a global conservation conference have warned.

Whether through habitat loss, pollution, hunting, or indirectly by global warming, humans are squarely to blame for what may be the first major die-off in 65 million years, they say.

From Sunday, more than 8000 ministers, UN officials, NGOs, scientists and business chiefs will brainstorm for 10 days in the Spanish city of Barcelona on how to brake this loss and steer the world onto a path of sustainable development.

The World Conservation Congress, held every four years, will also release an update on Monday of the famous Red List on biodiversity, deemed the global standard for conservation monitoring.

“The evidence is overwhelming - and we have really good data now - that what we are seeing is probably a mass extinction,” the sixth in 450 million years, said Michael Hoffman, a mammal expert at IUCN who worked extensively on the Red List.

The current pace of dieoff is 100 to 1000 times higher than the so-called “background rate” of extinction - the average rate, over millions of years, at which species bite the dust.

“Species extinctions across all these groups will have very far-reaching consequences on human beings,” he said.

The Red List will include the most comprehensive study ever made on the survival status of Earth's more than 5000 mammals species.

The new biodiversity “bible” is the fruit of 1700 experts, and scientists who took part in the effort say it will make for grim reading.

The 2007 edition already shows more than a third of 41,000 species surveyed are facing extinction: a quarter of all mammals, one out of eight birds, one out of three amphibians, and 70 percent of plants.

Our closest evolutionary cousins, primates, are especially vulnerable.

Hunted for food and traditional medicines, their habitat dwindling, more than 70 percent of known species in Asia, for example, are under threat.

Science has identified more than 1.9 million species to date. If microbial organisms are included, this is probably only a tenth of the life forms on Earth.

“Biodiversity is disappearing at an accelerated rhythm and we have to act quickly to slow and prevent the extinction crisis,” said Julia Marton-Lefevre, director-general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, organiser of the October 5-14 congress.


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24440817-601,00.html

Hence the term 'the anthropocene epoch'.

Still the climate change deniers insist the environment will simply adapt to the next major stress we place on it.

Yes Sprintcyclist - and Australia is one of the worst culprits.  It all goes back to the same old problem - overpopulation and greed.  Recently we've seen many cases of bears, orangutans, wolves etc. who have no habitat left and are wandering into villages looking for food where they are usually killed.

NSW has a terrible record for forest destruction although Bob Carr did make provisions to protect certain areas but currently NSW Forestry is logging 5 football fields a day of redgums, wetlands and sensitive eco-systems where a few of our very rare mammals have been barely surviving - although probably not for much longer.  

Just an example of what's going on in our own country.

The inland wetlands of New South Wales are on the brink of eological catastrophe. The images are heart-breaking – thousands of hectares of burnt reedbeds in the Macquarie Marshes, centuries-old red gums dropping their leaves and dying on the Murray floodplain, crushed eggshells in the desiccated Gwyd i r Wetlands. This year’s waterbird counts were the lowest on record, by far.

The Tasmanian devil to go within 10 years


Quote:

Taronga Conservation Society director Guy Cooper said the devil could be extinct within a decade, with the disease spreading much quicker than initially believed. "The forecasts are now down to 10 years," he said. "Basically now it is too late for science to come up with the answer. "The only way to really safeguard this animal and guarantee its future is the insurance program.

You may breed a virtual devil here and help the real one as well.

freediver wrote on Oct 3^rd, 2008 at 5:25pm:

Hence the term 'the anthropocene epoch'. Still the climate change deniers insist the environment will simply adapt to the next major stress we place on it.

Oh it will, but we may not like how it adapts.

Queensland Museum to hang complete blue whale skeleton


Quote:

Dr Steve Van Dyck, senior curator of vertebrates at the Queensland Museum, said it would be the first complete specimen of a blue whale at the museum. He said the skull was about four metres long and the weight of the whale, including the flesh, would be close to 100 tonnes. "Although it is disappointing to have one of these endangered animals found dead, this rare find is a highly significant contribution to the state collection,'' Dr Van Dyck said.

Not a word about the reason of the whale's death.