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The one process ongoing ... that will take millions of years
to correct is the loss of genetic and species diversity by the
destruction of natural habitats. This is the folly our
descendents are least likely to forgive us. . . . .E.O. Wilson 

since loading this page ...   The world has added   PEOPLE (2.8 /sec. net)    and lost acres of WILD LANDS (1.6 acres/sec)

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• Half of the mangrove forests, which serve as estuaries in the tropics, have been lost to a combination of coastal development and conversion to aquaculture.
• Global aquaculture now accounts for more than one-quarter of all fish consumed by humans. In the case of shrimp and salmon -- the fastest growing segment of aquaculture -- two to three pounds of fish are needed to grow one pound of the raised seafood. Thus this practice is depleting the oceans of food for wild fish, birds, and marine mammals.
• About 3000 species of marine life are in transit in ballast water of ships around the world, resulting in a serious invasion of non-native species in our waterways. A minor but increasing contributor to the problem is escape of non-native fish and plants from aquariums.
• There are now some 50 'dead zones' in the world's coastal areas, she reported. The largest in the Western Hemisphere is in the Gulf of Mexico, caused by excess nitrogen and phosphorus flowing down the Mississippi River

• Half of the world's wetlands were lost last century.
• Logging and conversion have shrunk the world's forests by as much as half.
• Some 9 percent of the world's tree species are at risk of extinction; tropical deforestation may exceed 130,000 square kilometers per year.
• Fishing fleets are 40 percent larger than the ocean can sustain.
• Nearly 70 percent of the world's major marine fish stocks are overfished or are being fished at their biological limit.
• Soil degradation has affected two-thirds of the world's agricultural lands in the last 50 years.
• Some 30 percent of the world's original forests have been converted to agriculture.
• Since 1980, the global economy has tripled in size and population has grown by 30 percent to 6 billion people.
• Dams, diversions or canals fragment almost 60 percent of the world's largest rivers.
• Twenty percent of the world's freshwater fish are extinct, threatened or endangered.

Impacts for the New Millenium
  World energy needs are projected to double in the next several decades, but no credible geologist foresees a doubling of world oil production, which is projected to peak within the next few decades.

* While protein demands are projected to also double in the century ahead, no respected marine biologist expects the oceanic fish catch, which has plateaued over the last decade, to double. The world's oceans are being pushed beyond the breaking point, due to a lethal combination of pollution and over-exploitation. Eleven of the 15 most important oceanic fisheries and 70 percent of the major fish species are now fully or over-exploited, according to experts. And more than half the world's coral reefs are now sick or dying.

* Growing stress can also be seen in the world's woodlands, where the clearing of tropical forests has contributed recently to unprecedented fires across large areas of Southeast Asia, the Amazon, and Central America. In Indonesia alone, 1,100 airline flights were canceled, and billions of dollars of income were lost.

* Environmental deterioration is taking a growing toll on a wide range of living organisms. Of the 242,000 plant species surveyed by the World Conservation Union in 1997, some 33,000, or 14 percent, are threatened with extinction-mainly as a result of massive land clearing for housing, roads, and industries. This mass extinction is projected to disrupt nature's ability to provide essential ecosystem services, ranging from pollination to flood control.

* The atmosphere is also under assault. The billions of tons of carbon that have been released since the Industrial Revolution have pushed atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide to their highest level in 160,000 years-a level that continues to rise each year. As scientists predicted, temperatures are rising along with the concentration of carbon dioxide. The latest jump in 1998 left the global temperature at its highest level since record-keeping began in the mid-19th century. Higher temperatures are projected to threaten food supplies in the next century, while more severe storms cause economic damage, and rising seas inundate coastal cities.   January 22, 1999   World Watch Institute

The pressures of growing populations on natural resources and corporate greed combine, leading to unhealthy consequences

 
• More than 90% of America's native prairies have been lost to cultivation.
• More than half of the wetlands have been drained or developed; the nation continues to lose more than 100,000 acres of wetlands per year.
• One million acres of farmland a year are lost to development.   2000   Sierra Club Planet

Country Roads Mountaintop Removal Mining   Almost level, West Virginia Scalped off mountains dumped into our rivers, Dark and dusty - blasting toward the sky, Murdering our mountains, teardrops in our eyes. Ken Hechler, West Virginia's Secretary of State

Sixty five million years ago, say geologists, a meteorite made cataclysmic contact with Earth. It was the beginning of the end of the dinosaurs, Earth's last great extinction. The next great extinction will be more fizzle than fireworks. In fact, it's already begun. Biodiversity, the very variety of life, is under attack. Paving and populating, consuming and polluting, humans are causing More is at stake than simply the spice of life. Each species takes its

secrets to the grave: potential solutions to coming crises, possible cures to medical mysteries.   Biodiversity: The Fragile Web February 1999   National Geographic News

Kenya's Lions Could Vanish Within 10 Years.   Only 2000 lions are left in Kenya, which is losing 100 lion