70% of animals wiped out in 50 years

This is an interesting article on the subject: www.humanprogress.org/the-return-of-the-dead-countering-extinction/

There is still an if it moves, shoot it,mentality. It is disgusting. They often refer to it as ‘culling’ and then a few years later they panic because they are becoming endangered. No long term planning, no interest whatsoever from governments.

nanna8

There is still an if it moves, shoot it,mentality. It is disgusting. They often refer to it as ‘culling’ and then a few years later they panic because they are becoming endangered. No long term planning, no interest whatsoever from governments.

Space for the population comes first, animals don’t get to vote,
we got rid of many of our animals centuries ago.

Katie59

nanna8

There is still an if it moves, shoot it,mentality. It is disgusting. They often refer to it as ‘culling’ and then a few years later they panic because they are becoming endangered. No long term planning, no interest whatsoever from governments.

Space for the population comes first, animals don’t get to vote,
we got rid of many of our animals centuries ago.

Yup. I keep saying the only solution is to reduce the human population.

Not many agree with me though??

nanna8

There is still an if it moves, shoot it,mentality. It is disgusting. They often refer to it as ‘culling’ and then a few years later they panic because they are becoming endangered. No long term planning, no interest whatsoever from governments.

Re culling (or not), we were recently staying with my sister in Cape Cod. Some years ago we would regularly swim at her formerly favourite beach, but didn’t this time, nor the last time maybe 5 years ago.

The reason is this sign now exhibited at every single beach in the area! (Presumably so you can’t say you didn’t know and then sue the local authority.)

There have been many sightings in recent years, including very close to the shore, and some poor chap was killed at my sister’s favourite beach a couple of years ago.

Nobody gave the idea of Great Whites a thought before.

Nobody knows the reason for certain, but it’s thought that a) it’s because they’ve stopped culling seals (the Great White’s favourite food) so there are a lot more in the area, and b) possibly the sea being fractionally warmer, because of global warming.
(I don’t know why the pic came up in your post, Nanna8!)

Heartbreaking. Not surprising thought considering man's general attitude. We are busy wrecking the planet and the poor, innocent animals suffer. Man is overpopulating the world without thought or care about other forms of life.

Thank you LilyoftheValley .

That’s two of us that think that overpopulation of humans is the root cause.

Because we won’t do anything about that, everything else is just tinkering at the edges.

I thought that human overpopulation being the cause of the destruction of biodiversity was a given.

I thought Covid was going to reduce the population a lot more than it actually did. Shame, really.

CatsCatsCats

I thought that human overpopulation being the cause of the destruction of biodiversity was a given.

I thought Covid was going to reduce the population a lot more than it actually did. Shame, really.

What? ?

I think a lot of people understand it academically. It’s just that we’re not willing to apply it to our own personal circumstances.

The culling often takes place where no one actually lives or is likely to. Vast tracts of desert etc here. They just like killing things, it is a sport to them.

The laws of nature do not apply to humans we are too smart, a pandemic frequently wipes out large numbers of wild animals, we are clever and find ways of overcoming the diseases. The big challenge now is climate change which is going to be much more difficult to control.

Population control is off the agenda in many countries, China is the notable exception, many developed countries are seeing lower birth rate with women choosing to have less children.

The laws of nature do not apply to humans we are too smart.

That's a joke, right?

Well, it’s true to some extent, volver, at least as regards diseases. The Black Death wiped out a huge percentage of the population in many countries, including ours - we’ve moved on a bit since then.
Global warming is of course a different matter.

The laws of nature are, by definition the laws of nature.

They still apply no matter how smart we are.

They always predicted a global pandemic and they were absolutely right. Who is to say there won’t be many more ?

We are the clever apes, so far homo sapiens has managed to dominate the whole planet despite our own attempts at self destruction with warfare.
It’s only our ability to exploit resources that has enabled us to do that, there has to be a limit, when that is reached the population will have to fall.

I don't disagree with you Katie59, but that doesn't mean the laws of nature don't apply any more. They still apply but in some cases we have found ways of staving off their worst effects.

The reason for the decline in the number of animals isn't that people are going out shooting them for sport, it's that we are systematically destroying their habitats and making it impossible for them to live.

The article quoted by Baggs at the start of this thread is very misleading; its written by someone whose expertise is in money. No, seriously, that's what he says in his byline. He quotes selective stats to make his spurious assertions seem more likely. For instance, he says there have only been 530 recorded extinctions across all species in the last five centuries. In fact there are at least 10,000 a year.

10,000 a year is a gross exaggeration there may be some which is bad but inflating figures convinces nobody

Lathyrus

I think a lot of people understand it academically. It’s just that we’re not willing to apply it to our own personal circumstances.

If the world's population was halved, would that affect the devastation of the rainforest? Would it prevent the mining for lithium? Would it prevent the half-sized population of (e.g.) India wanting to equal the standard of living that we have enjoyed in the west for decades?

Blaming the size of the population is a convenient way of saying, "there's nothing we can do about it, it's someone else's fault".

It's driven by greed, as has been said it's the unrelenting destruction of the environment. You only have to look at the current intended grab for growth without a nod in the direction of sustainability or environmental protection. To a degree, I guess that you could excuse past generations for their ignorance but that doesn't wash today. Yet not enough people care or those in power are driven by a need for wealth and turn a blind eye. When we have destroyed the environment we can eat money.

Katie59

10,000 a year is a gross exaggeration there may be some which is bad but inflating figures convinces nobody

Actually, I chose the lower estimate. The higher estimate is 100,000.

Take it up with the WWF, who probably know more about it that a man who writes about money for a living.

wwf.panda.org/discover/our_focus/biodiversity/biodiversity/

volver

Lathyrus

I think a lot of people understand it academically. It’s just that we’re not willing to apply it to our own personal circumstances.

If the world's population was halved, would that affect the devastation of the rainforest? Would it prevent the mining for lithium? Would it prevent the half-sized population of (e.g.) India wanting to equal the standard of living that we have enjoyed in the west for decades?

Blaming the size of the population is a convenient way of saying, "there's nothing we can do about it, it's someone else's fault".

Well of course it would ?

Half the population would mean half the demand for those resources and others beside. Half the population would take up much less space.

You wouldn’t solve all the problems with half the population but you won’t solve any of them with a growing human population demanding more and more space and resources.

Even half the human population isn’t enough of a reduction. The estimate for a human population that the planet can support is 3.5 billion.