Do you remember that chilling scene in the movie The Day After Tomorrow when wave upon wave of frenzied seabirds fled inland? It was the surest sign something was wrong, an omen that a tidal wave of truth was finally about to strike.But what if there were no birds left to flee? Nor animals to run? Or even fish to swim away? According to an academic study carried recently by most media services, this may very well be the case. In the ten year period between 1995 and 2005, 30 out of every 100 kinds of seabirds that existed disappeared from the face of our planet, it said. Became extinct. Vanished forever in only ten years!
This new report was released as the Convention on Biological Diversity meets 5,000 strong May 19-30 in Bonn, Germany. It was compiled jointly by some of the world’s leading conservation agencies, including the World Wildlife Fund, the Zoological Society of London, and the Global Footprint Network.
The causes? Pollution. Farming and urban expansion that change the nature of the planet’s face. Overfishing and overhunting, The common factor? Us. Humans. The one living creature that kills when it isn’t hungry and willfully destroys its own habitat.
According to the study, the world’s population of animals, birds and fish has dropped by a third in the last 35 years. Take that math 100 years into the future and what do you get? If you think that’s scary, try this: every year almost 1% of species of creatures that live on this earth go extinct Again, take that 100 years to the future.
Try adding the following data from CBC News to the puzzle. Between 1970 and 2005, land-based species fell by 25 per cent, marine by 28 per cent and freshwater by 29 per cent. Now factor in that between 1960 and 2000, the numbers of another species, humans, doubled on this planet.
Is the total loss of all living things on our planet except us certain? Is it even possible? According to the report editor, Jonathan Loh, it is possible, but hasn’t happened in a long time.
"You'd have to go back to the extinction of the dinosaurs to see a decline as rapid as this," Loh says.
I’ve been blowing my horn of warning about all this, one crisis at a time, for more than 40 years. Please do not ask me if there is hope for humanity. Most will simply say “Who needs birds and animals? I’ve got my own problems to worry about.”
Self-centered and myopic, that’s us old hairless apes. I’ll never forget what a river warden from the Codroy Valley in Newfoundland told me one summer day in 1969.
“They scream and yell at us there are no salmon any more, and what’re we going to do about it. But as long as there’s one salmon left in one pool, the poachers will be after it. And when the last stick of dynamite gets it, they’ll all look at each other, astounded there’s no more salmon left.”
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.