Sad….

Scientists resign ‘living dead’ species to extinction, call for triage debate

The dramatic ongoing loss of Australian animal and plant species has prompted influential scientists to call on governments to start making tough decisions about which ones to save – and which species should be left to face extinction.

The proposal to triage Australia’s unique species comes from some of the nation’s most senior conservation biologists.

It is a radical and controversial shift from decades of hard-fought conservation victories aiming to preserve all species and wilderness.

“I’m afraid to tell everybody we’re in a terminal situation. We’re confronting a whole raft of species about to go over the extinction cliff,” Professor David Bowman, an expert in environmental change biology at the University of Tasmania, said.

Professor Corey Bradshaw, director of the Environment Institute’s Climate and Ecology Centre at The University of Adelaide, says Kakadu National Park has suffered a 95 per cent decline in mammals.

“Kakadu National Park, our largest national park, is basically a biodiversity basket case,” Professor Bradshaw said.

“The Great Barrier Reef has been suffering biodiversity declines for decades. Now if we can’t get it right in our two biggest and most well-known and certainly the best-funded parks and protected areas in Australia, what hope have we for the rest of our national parks?”

…..Species numbering less than a few hundred in the wild, like the orange-bellied parrot, are dubbed the “living dead” by scientists.

“We call those living dead or zombie species because the likelihood of them persisting for any reasonable amount of time in the future is pretty low,” Professor Bradshaw said.

“So we’ve already basically resigned those species to some form of extinction within the near future.”

He says conservation should prioritise those species critical to our life support system.

That means a pollinating insect could be more important than a beautiful bird.

“Things in the soil that allow us to grow crops, the slimy oozy parts of the wetlands that purify our water, all the creepy crawlies that pollinate all of our crops so we can eat,” he said.

Full report: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-19/australian-species-facing-extinction-living-dead-triage/5331908

The sad part is that we are acknowledging that human existence means most things that least affect us must go extinct.

While we continue to elect politicians who’s idea of long term vision is the next election, we’ll only ever see more of this.

Environmental concerns will always lose out against the “progress, jobs, economy” mentality.

Teleost said:

While we continue to elect politicians who’s idea of long term vision is the next election, we’ll only ever see more of this.

Environmental concerns will always lose out against the “progress, jobs, economy” mentality.

I don’t believe we had much of a choice in the last elections.

Where were the statesmen. Where were the visionaries

Dropbear said:

Teleost said:

While we continue to elect politicians who’s idea of long term vision is the next election, we’ll only ever see more of this.

Environmental concerns will always lose out against the “progress, jobs, economy” mentality.

I don’t believe we had much of a choice in the last elections.

Where were the statesmen. Where were the visionaries

Stop the boats!

Teleost said:

While we continue to elect politicians who’s idea of long term vision is the next election, we’ll only ever see more of this.

Environmental concerns will always lose out against the “progress, jobs, economy” mentality.

Why we never considered the entire resources of Australia were our future fund, I have trouble comprehending.

poikilotherm said:

Dropbear said:

Teleost said:

While we continue to elect politicians who’s idea of long term vision is the next election, we’ll only ever see more of this.

Environmental concerns will always lose out against the “progress, jobs, economy” mentality.

I don’t believe we had much of a choice in the last elections.

Where were the statesmen. Where were the visionaries

Stop the boats!

The latter only reduces the gene pool further.

Dropbear said:

Teleost said:

While we continue to elect politicians who’s idea of long term vision is the next election, we’ll only ever see more of this.

Environmental concerns will always lose out against the “progress, jobs, economy” mentality.

I don’t believe we had much of a choice in the last elections.

Where were the statesmen. Where were the visionaries

Too right.

We also seem to have developed a reactionary voting culture. People don’t so much vote in the person they want, but vote out the one they don’t. When you’ve got a shiny new pile of crap, it seems more interesting than the dull old pile of crap.

Either way, you still end up with crap.

Teleost said:

Dropbear said:

Teleost said:

While we continue to elect politicians who’s idea of long term vision is the next election, we’ll only ever see more of this.

Environmental concerns will always lose out against the “progress, jobs, economy” mentality.

I don’t believe we had much of a choice in the last elections.

Where were the statesmen. Where were the visionaries

Too right.

We also seem to have developed a reactionary voting culture. People don’t so much vote in the person they want, but vote out the one they don’t. When you’ve got a shiny new pile of crap, it seems more interesting than the dull old pile of crap.

Either way, you still end up with crap.

Comment is rather poignant, in relation to voting out those we economically consider to be falling off the extinction cliff.

Operation kill everything

wookiemeister said:

Operation kill everything

When People Ignore Expert Advice:

Helix said:

…this is what happens.

You see it with insecticides, pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics…

Voracious worm evolves to eat biotech corn engineered to kill it

After years of predicting it would happen — and after years of having their suggestions largely ignored by companies, farmers and regulators — scientists have documented the rapid evolution of corn rootworms that are resistant to Bt corn.

roughbarked said:

wookiemeister said:

Operation kill everything

When People Ignore Expert Advice:

Helix said:

…this is what happens.

You see it with insecticides, pesticides, fertilizers, antibiotics…

Voracious worm evolves to eat biotech corn engineered to kill it

After years of predicting it would happen — and after years of having their suggestions largely ignored by companies, farmers and regulators — scientists have documented the rapid evolution of corn rootworms that are resistant to Bt corn.

As Pete Seeger would sing:
When will they ever learn
When will they ever learn.

“Where were the statesmen. Where were the visionaries”

Can we have a bloke question?

where are the blokes?

dv said:

“Where were the statesmen. Where were the visionaries”

Can we have a bloke question?

Sorry sir

Bubblecar said:

“I’m afraid to tell everybody we’re in a terminal situation. We’re confronting a whole raft of species about to go over the extinction cliff,” Professor David Bowman, an expert in environmental change biology at the University of Tasmania, said.

I’ve never completely freed myself of the suspicion that there are some extremely odd things about this mission.

Soso said:

Bubblecar said:

“I’m afraid to tell everybody we’re in a terminal situation. We’re confronting a whole raft of species about to go over the extinction cliff,” Professor David Bowman, an expert in environmental change biology at the University of Tasmania, said.

I’ve never completely freed myself of the suspicion that there are some extremely odd things about this mission.

Nice catch by soso