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The King Of Karaoke
> Teenager of the Year <
USA
3759 Posts |
 Posted - 10/15/2004 : 10:44:19
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Every time I turn around there seems to be some new sign of our impending doom on this planet. Does this worry anyone else? Should I just ignore it?
Maybe I should buy a big ass Ford Expedition, zip down to McDonald, have a happy meal and forget about it.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/10/15/MNGOV9AHE61.DTL
Disease, climate change and habitat loss are threatening one-third of the world's fragile species of frogs, toads, newts and salamanders, according to the first global assessment of amphibians.
The results of the survey, published today in the journal Science, show that 1,856 of the known 5,743 species are "globally threatened'' in their forest, stream or underground homes.
The delicate creatures, which have thin, porous skins and need fresh water to stay moist, are faring much worse around the world than either birds or mammals, the scientists say. Around a tenth of bird species and a quarter of mammal species are threatened.
As many as 168 amphibian species, some of which evolved over millions of years, may already be extinct. Up to 122 seem to have disappeared since 1980, the assessment said.
"It's tragic. Many of them are beautiful species, or they had extraordinary lifestyles that are just lost to us," said Simon N. Stuart, a report author. "Wiping out a fantastically wonderful set of species impoverishes our own lives."
Stuart is senior director of biodiversity assessment at the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It keeps what is known as the Red List, a compilation of the world's imperiled plants and animals.
The assessment in today's Science, however, is the first detailed look at amphibians. Disease and climate change may eventually affect not just these sensitive animals but also hardier species like humans.
"What happens to amphibians now could well be a prophecy of what happens to other species, maybe even ourselves,'' Stuart said. "They serve as an early warning system.''
Losing species can set off unforeseen consequences involving the health of other species, including pollination of plants and predation on insects, scientists say.
The assessment found that California has more threatened or extinct amphibians than any other U.S. state -- 13 out of 54 known species.
The imperiled amphibians here include the Yosemite toad, California tiger salamander, California red-legged frog, the mountain yellow-legged frog, the Cascade's frog and the lowland yellow-legged frog, according to amphibian biologist David Wake, professor emeritus of integrative biology at UC Berkeley.
"We don't see any common elements leading to their decline. For California red-legged frogs and tiger salamanders, the biggest loss is due to habitat modification by humans. The introduced East Coast bullfrog eats the eggs and the young of the California red-legged frog," Wake said. "For the Yosemite toad in the high Sierra, the reasons for the loss are not so clear.''
A group in his department is studying a fungal disease of the skin, chytridiomycosis, that the global assessment has implicated in many of the declines. Scientists suspect that it is spread when frogs such as the U.S. East Coast bullfrog or the African clawed frog are carried around the world for laboratory study or food farms.
According to the assessment, the disease appears to be more prevalent when animals are under stress during extreme drought, which has been occurring more frequently in recent years and is linked to climate change.
More than 500 scientists from 60 countries contributed to the three-year Global Amphibian Assessment. There were also 14 regional workshops in countries such as India, Thailand, Brazil, China, Ecuador and Kenya, where data are the hardest to find.
The number of globally threatened species is expected to rise in the future.
The assessment showed that 43.2 percent are already declining in population, and 7.6 percent of those are declining rapidly.
The largest numbers of threatened species occur in Colombia, Mexico and Ecuador. The highest levels of threats are in the Caribbean, with more than 80 percent of amphibians threatened in the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Jamaica, and 92 percent in Haiti..
The Global Amphibian Assessment may be seen at www.globalamphibians.org.
CHART:
ABSENT AMPHIBIANS
For the first time ever, 5,743 known amphibian species have been surveyed to assess their threat status and distribution. The Global Amphibian Assessment found that 32.3 percent were either critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable..
Extinct: 0.6% (35 species)
Critically endangered: 7.4% (427 species)
Endangered: 13.3% (761 species)
Near threatened: 6.3% (359 species)
Vulnerable: 11.6% (668 species)
Least concern: 38.4% (2,203 species)
Data deficient: 22.5% (1,290 species).
-- Countries with highest number of threatened species
(No. of species threatened/country)
208 Colombia
191 Mexico
163 Ecuador
110 Brazil
86 China
78 Peru
74 Guatemala
68 Venezuela
66 India
61 Costa Rica
55 Madagascar
53 Honduras
52 Panama
51 United States
50 Cameroon
48 Philippines
47 Australia
47 Cuba
46 Haiti
45 Malaysia.Associated Press Source: Global Amphibian Assessment
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Sir Rockabye
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1158 Posts |
Posted - 10/15/2004 : 12:27:41
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This issue is actually addressed quite well in Tom Robbin's novel Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, which I'm currently reading. It isn't solely about the imperiled amphibians, but it a really entertaining novel.
Turn the spit on that pig and kick the drum and let me down.
Put my clarinet beneath your bed 'til I get back in town.
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apl4eris
~ Abstract Brain ~
USA
4800 Posts |
Posted - 10/15/2004 : 12:38:34
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Yeah it's pretty stunning. Consider the already industrialized and resource-pilfered nations and regions. Their numbers would be much greater if there were still the diversity of fragile animals (amphibians etc.) there to be endangered.
Rant alert:
It's another scene on that long blind railroad ( ) to progress, and no brakes on the nuclear-powered engine. The way we invent is generally through fierce competition and as a bi-product of war effort. This doesn't leave room for careful delibertion about possible harm to future generations from chemicals, an eye to sustainable resources, or designing around global warming factors. Instead, we end up spending our time and money on half-assed and dangerous cleanup.
Yucca Mountain in Nevada, designed to hold the USA's nuclear defense and energy waste and last 100,000 years, consisting of burying it in concrete in a mountain range that happened to be on a faultine and very close to a water table (echoes of Ole Mulholland's hubris...?):
The routes that will be taken to transport the nuclear waste:
Basically, the way we avoid one peril forces us to face another potentially far greater peril at a later date.
Marshall Mcluhan (Bucky Fuller too - I highly recommend "Critical Path") had a lot of very insightful things to say about the way we relate to technology, and how it could be done more mindfully. The thing is, so much money could be saved in the long run, and overall better technology could be had, but the benefits only need be just a little better than the competition, and the profits are needed before the next quarter, not the next quarter of a century. It's an inevitably fatal (for the majority of life, at least) flaw in our whole human process.
Sorry for the slight tangent there, but it is all related. Thanks for the topic, KoK.
RIP Rest In Peace Jacques Derrida. rasta. ruowa. freedom from activity. a brief pause in reading. a rhythmic silence in music. |
Edited by - apl4eris on 10/15/2004 12:42:16 |
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betty
= Cult of Ray =
USA
258 Posts |
Posted - 10/15/2004 : 16:11:44
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other than be depressed about this, what can you and i do?
perhaps we are not so powerless as we think, but how?
i love critters.
love,
betty
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Amphibian species imperiled worldwide
