The biggest headline of the year—perhaps the biggest of the
millennium went largely unnoticed by the press in November 2010.
Perhaps they didn’t understand the gravity of the news. Perhaps they
felt it was too scary, too controversial or too complex for the public
to understand. Perhaps Lindsey Lohan or Charlie Sheen’s antics they
deemed a more important story. Whatever the reason, the headline faded
away without fanfare. What didn’t fade away was imminent peril as sure
as a comet hurling to earth.
What was the headline we all missed? The United Nations Council of Bio-Diversity announced that one-in-six species on the planet were on the brink of extinction.
The majority of peer-reviewed biologists stated that we are in the 6th
“great extinction of species” that our planet has known. The difference
between this extinction and the previous five is that never before has
the planet been attacked so severely on all three regions that contain
life (air, water and land). The other significant difference is that
this extinction is entirely preventable unlike the other 5 in which
natural phenomenas were the cause. What is the cause of this mass
extinction? A prolific species called “Homo sapien”.
The news gets worse. It is conservatively estimated that in the next 50
years one half of the species will disappear forever from our planet.
Losing 50% or more of the species without the thousands of years needed
to adapt to change for the remaining species will cause a snowball
effect. It will accelerate the extinction of even more species and many
more symbiotic chains of shared existence will break down.
What few people realize is how important symbiotic chains are. Imagine
no pollinators to make crops produce food. No plant systems to cleanse
drinking water. No woodpeckers to keep trees healthy. No trees to
balance the air we breathe. Imagine no medicines—because without the
natural world—most of the ingredients won’t exist.
As sure as if a comet were hurling to earth, the story the press didn’t
tell is that we’re on going to be on that extinction list as well.
What can be done? Can anything help at this point? Yes, it will take
tough decisions…the ones that involve sharing our planet with all the
other species rather than hoarding it for ourselves and thus, restoring
balance. These are decisions that most of our politicians, even the
forward thinking ones, don’t want to make… ones that many of us don’t
want to make either. It is our job to let our leaders know the time to
act is not in twenty years, not in ten, not after the election, but
today. Budgets, taxes and jobs won’t matter if there’s no clean water to
drink, if there’s no food to eat, or no air to breathe.
Only after the last tree has been cut down.
Only after the last river has been poisoned.
Only after the last fish has been caught.
Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.
- Cree Indian Prophecy
It’s disheartening to see the lack of environmental coverage on the major news outlets. With this election season upon us in the US, the GOP candidates sing choruses of repealing regulations that “hurt businesses and cost jobs”. Why is it that no reporters are asking the tough questions… maybe it’s because even supposedly reputable news outlet like CNN are running non-stop pro Energy Industry ads like “Clean Coal” and “I Vote Yes” for more oil and Natural Gas Drilling in the Us. Here are some of the tough questions that should be asked to the GOP candidates and President Obama:
With more than one-in-six species on the
planet on the brink of the extinction, do you think
it’s wise to cut the regulations that protect their
very existence?
or how about…
With the loosening of EPA standards, residents around coal-fired power plants are at higher health risks (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPmNqdRzMmk ). What is more important, the health and safety of your constituents or cheaper power?
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