[Mb-civic] Reuters.com - Humans spur worst extinction since dinosaurs - Mon Mar 20, 2006 12:18 PM ET

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 Humans spur worst extinction since dinosaurs
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Mon Mar 20, 2006 12:18 PM ET


 	

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) - Humans are responsible for the worst spate of
extinctions since the dinosaurs and must make unprecedented extra
efforts to reach a goal of slowing losses by 2010, a U.N. report said on
Monday.

Habitats ranging from coral reefs to tropical rainforests face mounting
threats, the Secretariat of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity
said in the report, issued at the start of a March 20-31 U.N. meeting in
Curitiba, Brazil.

"In effect, we are currently responsible for the sixth major extinction
event in the history of earth, and the greatest since the dinosaurs
disappeared, 65 million years ago," said the 92-page Global Biodiversity
Outlook 2 report.

Apart from the disappearance of the dinosaurs, the other "Big Five"
extinctions were about 205, 250, 375 and 440 million years ago.
Scientists suspect that asteroid strikes, volcanic eruptions or sudden
climate shifts may explain the five.

A rising human population of 6.5 billion was undermining the environment
for animals and plants via pollution, expanding cities, deforestation,
introduction of "alien species" and global warming, it said.

It estimated the current pace of extinctions was 1,000 times faster than
historical rates, jeopardizing a global goal set at a 2002 U.N. summit
in Johannesburg "to achieve, by 2010, a significant reduction in the
current rate of biodiversity loss".

"Unprecedented additional efforts' will be needed to achieve the 2010
biodiversity target at national, regional and global levels," it said.
The report was bleaker than a first U.N. review of the diversity of life
issued in 2001.

NOT ABATING

According to a "Red List" compiled by the World Conservation Union, 844
animals and plants are known to have gone extinct in the last 500 years,
ranging from the dodo to the Golden Toad in Costa Rica. It says the
figures are probably a big underestimate.

"The direct causes of biodiversity loss -- habitat change,
over-exploitation, the introduction of invasive alien species, nutrient
loading and climate change -- show no sign of abating," the report said.

Despite the threats, it said the 2010 goal was "by no means an
impossible one".

It urged better efforts to safeguard habitats ranging from deserts to
jungles and better management of resources from fresh water to timber.
About 12 percent of the earth's land surface is in protected areas,
against just 0.6 percent of the oceans.

It also recommended more work to curb pollution and to rein in
industrial emissions of gases released by burning fossil fuels and
widely blamed for global warming.

The report said, for instance, that the annual net loss of forests was
7.3 million hectares (18 million acres) -- an area the size of Panama or
Ireland -- from 2000-2005. Still, the figure was slightly less than 8.9
million hectares a year from 1990-2000.

And it said that annual environmental losses from introduced pests in
the United States, Australia, Britain, South Africa, India and Brazil
had been estimated at more than $100 billion.

About 300 "invasive species" -- molluscs, crustaceans and fish -- have
been introduced to the Mediterranean from the Red Sea since the late
19th century when the Suez Canal opened.

It gave mixed overall marks for progress on four key goals.

It said there was "reasonable progress" toward global cooperation but
"limited" advances in ensuring enough cash and research. It estimated
that annual aid to help slow biodiversity losses sank to $750 million
from $1 billion since 1998.

And it said there was "far from sufficient" progress in better planning
and implementation of biodiversity decisions and a "mixed" record in
better understanding of biodiversity.

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