We’re on the eve of destruction – but it’s not too late

May 19 2008 by Peter Elson, Liverpool Daily Post

IT WAS the words “halibut destruction” that caught my eye and I wondered how this caused a major cause of population decline in many species. Then I realised what was wrong – not for the first time I was looking through the wrong quarter of my vari-focals.

Having found the right specs, I found it was worse than first feared. Not mere “halibut destruction”, but full-blown “habitat destruction”; in fact, the halibut is entirely blameless.

Having bleated on about the destruction of our countryside again last week, I find it’s even worse than I realised with the conservation charity, the World Wildlife Fund, rushing to back up my concerns with grim statistics.

The harsh reality is that the world’s population of wild animals has fallen by almost a third since the 1970s. And it’s all our fault.

The numbers of wild animals overall are spiralling downwards and some species are rapidly disappearing altogether as we live beyond our means, gobbling up far too much of the Earth’s resources, in spite of all the buzzing chatter about “sustainability” and lowering carbon footprints.

The WWF Living Planet Index, which monitors the lives of hundreds of species, ranging from mammals like the Amur tiger, chimps, polar bears through sea creatures like the green turtle and insects, found that populations had decreased by an average of 27%, between 1970 and 2005. Marine species such as swordfish and scalloped hammerhead were particularly hard hit, falling by 28% alone between 1995 and 2005. Seabirds have suffered a rapid decline of about 30% since the mid-1990s.

Most of the problem is due to development, over-fishing, intensive farming, habitat loss, wildlife trade, pollution and man-made climate change. Overall, we’re consuming some 25% more natural resources than the Earth can replace. And, as with the countryside problems highlighted last week, once lost, there’s little chance of going back.

This dismal report flags up a major United Nations meeting in Bonn, Germany, called the Convention of Biological-Diversity, which will discuss the means of slowing these rates of loss by 2010. Britain is unlikely to meet its targets. The Living Planet Index is produced for WWF by the Zoological Society of London – a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals. It tracks 302 types of mammal, and 811 bird, 241 fish, 83 amphibian and 40 reptile species, and shows that land-based species fell by 25%, marine species by 28% and freshwater species by 29% between 1970 and 2005.

Habitat destruction and wildlife trade are the major causes of population decline in species. Over the next 30 years, climate change will be an increasingly important factor affecting species.

In the UK alone, we are generating carbon emissions and consuming natural resources at such a rate that we would need three planets to support us.

WWF believes this highlights the need for us all to move to one planet future. “Bio-diversity underpins the health of the planet and has a direct impact on all our lives, so it is alarming that, despite an increased awareness of environmental issues, we continue to see a downward trend,” says Colin Butfield, WWF-UK campaign chief.

“There are small signs of hope. If government grasps what is left of this rapidly closing window of opportunity, we can begin to reverse this trend.”

The report also highlights the importance of species and natural habitats in maintaining our security and quality of life. This can be done by providing wildlife with their provision of vital resources such as food, clean water and medicines, and protection from natural disasters.

Reduction in species translates into fewer new medicines, greater vulnerability to natural disasters and increased effects from global warming.

But don’t think all of wildlife is simply rolling over and dying. The flea-sized crazy raspberry ant is on the warpath in Texas and is hell-bent on eating anything electronic, such as munching through cables, computers, alarm systems, telephone exchanges and iPods. Baffled boffins are frantic as they march towards the Houston Space Center.

It couldn’t happen here, could (System Failure System Failu . . .

peter.elson@dailypost.co.uk