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There are thousands of species of animals that inhabit this planet of ours, yet slowly they are being diminished through extinction. This problem is becoming more and more prevalent with every year that passes by. Humans are both directly and indirectly responsible for this sad state of affairs.
Habitat Destruction
Destruction of habitat contributes much to a species' decline. This is the most significant threat but also the most difficult to prevent. The world's booming population growth forces humans to encroach more and more on land that was formerly home to wildlife. A striking example of this comes from the world's rain forests.
Within an estimated 40 years there will be no rain forests left; this is the dire situation that focuses attention on what many regard as a regrettable loss of valuable resources. In fact, many of all medicines known to the Western world have come from tropical rain forest plants. Although rain forests cover only a comparatively small percentage of the planet's land surface, they are home to four fifths of the world's terrestrial vegetation.
As man fells trees to clear the ground for agriculture, the plants, animals, birds, reptiles, and insects die off. A Harvard professor estimated that the loss of forest amounts to 1 percent a year, and this dooms thousands of species to eventual extinction. It is feared that many species will vanish before they are even assigned a scientific name.
Direct Attack
Through the centuries hunters have exterminated lions from Greece and Mesopotamia, hippopotamuses from Nubia, elephants from North Africa, bears and beavers from Britain, and wild oxen from Eastern Europe. During the 1870s and 1880s, hunters slaughtered animals in their millions, what seems quite shocking today was entirely acceptable behaviour then.
Examine the situation of the majestic tiger. Conservation efforts were enforced strictly, but this did little good, and hunters continued to kill tigers in large numbers. Hunters received a hefty wage for their efforts, especially the Siberian Tiger, valued not just for its prized skin but also for its bones, eyes, whiskers, teeth, internal organs, and sexual organs, all prized in traditional Oriental medicine. This high wage encouraged more hunters to break the rules, hence the current situaution.
Trade in elephant ivory, rhino horn, tiger skins, and other animal parts is now a multibillion-dollar black-market business. And it is not limited to large mammals. In 1994 traditional Chinese medicine consumed millions and millions of sea horses, causing the entire sea horse population to be cut in half in some areas of Southeast Asia.
It is not difficult to identify who is to blame when a species is hunted out of existence. Then, what about collectors? An endangered macaw fetches a black-market trader a hefty sum. But when he sells it abroad, he gains more than three and a half times that sum. Once again the high price is put in a higher priority than the law.
Wars and their by-products, growing crowds of refugees, together with a spiraling birthrate, increased pollution, and even tourism, threaten endangered species. Sightseers in powerboats injure the dolphins they flock to see, and underwater noise from the boats can interfere with the dolphins' delicate echo-system.
So what are conservationists doing to preserve threatened species, and how successful are they?
The battle between conservation and extinction rages on. Many charitable organizations pressure governments to adopt stricter conservation laws in order to protect endangered species. Not long ago, for example, various groups met with Chinese officials and won their cooperation in efforts to eliminate the trapping of Asian black bears. These animals had been taken for their bile and gallbladders, which are used in traditional Oriental medicine.
Human Intervention
If all the world's zoos truly put their weight behind captive breeding, and if the public put their weight behind the zoos, then they could between them save all species that are likely to need captive breeding in the foreseeable future. Many such schemes have proved successful.
Doubtful Prospects
Failures occur, nevertheless. Many express concern over the plight of species reintroduced into the wild. The Siberian tiger survives well in captivity, but in the wild it needs about 100 square miles of forest, free of poachers. Additionally, if you put a zoo-raised tiger straight back into this environment, and it will almost certainly starve. A gloomy prospect indeed!
Realistically, not every species has its own specialized team of helpers. And it is not simply a lack of manpower that compounds the problem. No matter how dedicated conservationists are, when faced with official corruption, greed, and indifference as well as war and even the threat of death, what hope have they of success?
King of Such
Habitat Destruction
Destruction of habitat contributes much to a species' decline. This is the most significant threat but also the most difficult to prevent. The world's booming population growth forces humans to encroach more and more on land that was formerly home to wildlife. A striking example of this comes from the world's rain forests.
Within an estimated 40 years there will be no rain forests left; this is the dire situation that focuses attention on what many regard as a regrettable loss of valuable resources. In fact, many of all medicines known to the Western world have come from tropical rain forest plants. Although rain forests cover only a comparatively small percentage of the planet's land surface, they are home to four fifths of the world's terrestrial vegetation.
As man fells trees to clear the ground for agriculture, the plants, animals, birds, reptiles, and insects die off. A Harvard professor estimated that the loss of forest amounts to 1 percent a year, and this dooms thousands of species to eventual extinction. It is feared that many species will vanish before they are even assigned a scientific name.
Direct Attack
Through the centuries hunters have exterminated lions from Greece and Mesopotamia, hippopotamuses from Nubia, elephants from North Africa, bears and beavers from Britain, and wild oxen from Eastern Europe. During the 1870s and 1880s, hunters slaughtered animals in their millions, what seems quite shocking today was entirely acceptable behaviour then.
Examine the situation of the majestic tiger. Conservation efforts were enforced strictly, but this did little good, and hunters continued to kill tigers in large numbers. Hunters received a hefty wage for their efforts, especially the Siberian Tiger, valued not just for its prized skin but also for its bones, eyes, whiskers, teeth, internal organs, and sexual organs, all prized in traditional Oriental medicine. This high wage encouraged more hunters to break the rules, hence the current situaution.
Trade in elephant ivory, rhino horn, tiger skins, and other animal parts is now a multibillion-dollar black-market business. And it is not limited to large mammals. In 1994 traditional Chinese medicine consumed millions and millions of sea horses, causing the entire sea horse population to be cut in half in some areas of Southeast Asia.
It is not difficult to identify who is to blame when a species is hunted out of existence. Then, what about collectors? An endangered macaw fetches a black-market trader a hefty sum. But when he sells it abroad, he gains more than three and a half times that sum. Once again the high price is put in a higher priority than the law.
Wars and their by-products, growing crowds of refugees, together with a spiraling birthrate, increased pollution, and even tourism, threaten endangered species. Sightseers in powerboats injure the dolphins they flock to see, and underwater noise from the boats can interfere with the dolphins' delicate echo-system.
So what are conservationists doing to preserve threatened species, and how successful are they?
The battle between conservation and extinction rages on. Many charitable organizations pressure governments to adopt stricter conservation laws in order to protect endangered species. Not long ago, for example, various groups met with Chinese officials and won their cooperation in efforts to eliminate the trapping of Asian black bears. These animals had been taken for their bile and gallbladders, which are used in traditional Oriental medicine.
Human Intervention
If all the world's zoos truly put their weight behind captive breeding, and if the public put their weight behind the zoos, then they could between them save all species that are likely to need captive breeding in the foreseeable future. Many such schemes have proved successful.
Doubtful Prospects
Failures occur, nevertheless. Many express concern over the plight of species reintroduced into the wild. The Siberian tiger survives well in captivity, but in the wild it needs about 100 square miles of forest, free of poachers. Additionally, if you put a zoo-raised tiger straight back into this environment, and it will almost certainly starve. A gloomy prospect indeed!
Realistically, not every species has its own specialized team of helpers. And it is not simply a lack of manpower that compounds the problem. No matter how dedicated conservationists are, when faced with official corruption, greed, and indifference as well as war and even the threat of death, what hope have they of success?
King of Such
probably not. Unless you have a great new idea to tackle this problem, why tell us stuff we already know?
Heres a rhetorical question for ya : Religion, which is the one true faith? :-)
Heres a rhetorical question for ya : Religion, which is the one true faith? :-)
King of Such wrote:
> Habitat Destruction
Unfortunate but necessary in most cases. Humans are the #1 life form on earth and as such we'll use the planet and resources as we see fit - sure many of these uses are questionable - but the use of these resources provides jobs, wealth, resources and a whole host of things that a tree cannot. The loss of habitats isn't even a new thing, it's just that a few of us, devoid of anything else to criticise, have actualy woken up to it. Take the dinosaurs. see any ? Nope, their habitat was wiped out. Same goes for many species in Europe - the habitat has changed by human settlement over hundreds of years, its a little late to start worrying now....
> Direct Attack
Much of this concern is western activists targetting countries that make good targets. The use of animal products in Eastern medicine may be rather abhorrent to use but they're been doing it for hundreds of years without our criticism so why start now ? Sure, European and Asian hunters spent a couple of hundred years running around wiping out whole species but Western Europe spent the same time enslaving a majority of Africa so I don't think we have any moral high ground on that area. Ivory poaching e.t.c. is wrong on the scale it operates now, but again this is Western interference. Some want the trade to stop, but who actually stops it, the overstretched authorities in these African countries who face heavily aremd well trained hunters who basically outgun them. Anybody want to send our troops to sort the problem..er no we don't care enough to die, but we expect Africans to. Another main reason that conservation is big in Africa is because it makes money - no animals = no safari tourists = no $. Interest in the actual animals is not massive in Africa where they are seen as an income generator rahter than a conservation issue in hte purest form.
>
> Human Intervention
>
Whilst it would be great to spend millions helping zoo's theres a few bigger problems going on right now...like a possible Stock Market crash, a war against terrorism, India & Pakistan, Iraq, Crime,........ once we've sorted out peoples lives then maybe we can look at animals.
> Doubtful Prospects
>
The doubtful success is because of the way the conservationists pitch their cause. No group is going to convince a majority of voting western public, be they british or American, that saving one speices or habitat is more important than an issue like crime or terrorism, yet this is how the conservationists pitch their campaigns. It doesn't work and people get fed up of generalised save the rainforest talk. It's not enough to say "save this habitat", we want to know why we should, other than a sentence about the environment, in other words whats in it for the public in a material or visual sense ? Cynical, yes, but realistic. Fighting crime, wars on terror, anyone can see a visible and real benefit to those causes, and thats why they win support from voters !
Still, a good post, even if I don't agree !
~~Belldandy~~
> Habitat Destruction
Unfortunate but necessary in most cases. Humans are the #1 life form on earth and as such we'll use the planet and resources as we see fit - sure many of these uses are questionable - but the use of these resources provides jobs, wealth, resources and a whole host of things that a tree cannot. The loss of habitats isn't even a new thing, it's just that a few of us, devoid of anything else to criticise, have actualy woken up to it. Take the dinosaurs. see any ? Nope, their habitat was wiped out. Same goes for many species in Europe - the habitat has changed by human settlement over hundreds of years, its a little late to start worrying now....
> Direct Attack
Much of this concern is western activists targetting countries that make good targets. The use of animal products in Eastern medicine may be rather abhorrent to use but they're been doing it for hundreds of years without our criticism so why start now ? Sure, European and Asian hunters spent a couple of hundred years running around wiping out whole species but Western Europe spent the same time enslaving a majority of Africa so I don't think we have any moral high ground on that area. Ivory poaching e.t.c. is wrong on the scale it operates now, but again this is Western interference. Some want the trade to stop, but who actually stops it, the overstretched authorities in these African countries who face heavily aremd well trained hunters who basically outgun them. Anybody want to send our troops to sort the problem..er no we don't care enough to die, but we expect Africans to. Another main reason that conservation is big in Africa is because it makes money - no animals = no safari tourists = no $. Interest in the actual animals is not massive in Africa where they are seen as an income generator rahter than a conservation issue in hte purest form.
>
> Human Intervention
>
Whilst it would be great to spend millions helping zoo's theres a few bigger problems going on right now...like a possible Stock Market crash, a war against terrorism, India & Pakistan, Iraq, Crime,........ once we've sorted out peoples lives then maybe we can look at animals.
> Doubtful Prospects
>
The doubtful success is because of the way the conservationists pitch their cause. No group is going to convince a majority of voting western public, be they british or American, that saving one speices or habitat is more important than an issue like crime or terrorism, yet this is how the conservationists pitch their campaigns. It doesn't work and people get fed up of generalised save the rainforest talk. It's not enough to say "save this habitat", we want to know why we should, other than a sentence about the environment, in other words whats in it for the public in a material or visual sense ? Cynical, yes, but realistic. Fighting crime, wars on terror, anyone can see a visible and real benefit to those causes, and thats why they win support from voters !
Still, a good post, even if I don't agree !
~~Belldandy~~
There are thousands of species of animals that inhabit this planet of ours, yet slowly they are being diminished through extinction. This problem is becoming more and more prevalent with every year that passes by. Humans are both directly and indirectly responsible for this sad state of affairs.
Habitat Destruction
Destruction of habitat contributes much to a species' decline. This is the most significant threat but also the most difficult to prevent. The world's booming population growth forces humans to encroach more and more on land that was formerly home to wildlife. A striking example of this comes from the world's rain forests.
Within an estimated 40 years there will be no rain forests left; this is the dire situation that focuses attention on what many regard as a regrettable loss of valuable resources. In fact, many of all medicines known to the Western world have come from tropical rain forest plants. Although rain forests cover only a comparatively small percentage of the planet's land surface, they are home to four fifths of the world's terrestrial vegetation.
As man fells trees to clear the ground for agriculture, the plants, animals, birds, reptiles, and insects die off. A Harvard professor estimated that the loss of forest amounts to 1 percent a year, and this dooms thousands of species to eventual extinction. It is feared that many species will vanish before they are even assigned a scientific name.
Direct Attack
Through the centuries hunters have exterminated lions from Greece and Mesopotamia, hippopotamuses from Nubia, elephants from North Africa, bears and beavers from Britain, and wild oxen from Eastern Europe. During the 1870s and 1880s, hunters slaughtered animals in their millions, what seems quite shocking today was entirely acceptable behaviour then.
Examine the situation of the majestic tiger. Conservation efforts were enforced strictly, but this did little good, and hunters continued to kill tigers in large numbers. Hunters received a hefty wage for their efforts, especially the Siberian Tiger, valued not just for its prized skin but also for its bones, eyes, whiskers, teeth, internal organs, and sexual organs, all prized in traditional Oriental medicine. This high wage encouraged more hunters to break the rules, hence the current situaution.
Trade in elephant ivory, rhino horn, tiger skins, and other animal parts is now a multibillion-dollar black-market business. And it is not limited to large mammals. In 1994 traditional Chinese medicine consumed millions and millions of sea horses, causing the entire sea horse population to be cut in half in some areas of Southeast Asia.
It is not difficult to identify who is to blame when a species is hunted out of existence. Then, what about collectors? An endangered macaw fetches a black-market trader a hefty sum. But when he sells it abroad, he gains more than three and a half times that sum. Once again the high price is put in a higher priority than the law.
Wars and their by-products, growing crowds of refugees, together with a spiraling birthrate, increased pollution, and even tourism, threaten endangered species. Sightseers in powerboats injure the dolphins they flock to see, and underwater noise from the boats can interfere with the dolphins' delicate echo-system.
So what are conservationists doing to preserve threatened species, and how successful are they?
The battle between conservation and extinction rages on. Many charitable organizations pressure governments to adopt stricter conservation laws in order to protect endangered species. Not long ago, for example, various groups met with Chinese officials and won their cooperation in efforts to eliminate the trapping of Asian black bears. These animals had been taken for their bile and gallbladders, which are used in traditional Oriental medicine.
Human Intervention
If all the world's zoos truly put their weight behind captive breeding, and if the public put their weight behind the zoos, then they could between them save all species that are likely to need captive breeding in the foreseeable future. Many such schemes have proved successful.
Doubtful Prospects
Failures occur, nevertheless. Many express concern over the plight of species reintroduced into the wild. The Siberian tiger survives well in captivity, but in the wild it needs about 100 square miles of forest, free of poachers. Additionally, if you put a zoo-raised tiger straight back into this environment, and it will almost certainly starve. A gloomy prospect indeed!
Realistically, not every species has its own specialized team of helpers. And it is not simply a lack of manpower that compounds the problem. No matter how dedicated conservationists are, when faced with official corruption, greed, and indifference as well as war and even the threat of death, what hope have they of success?
King of Such
Habitat Destruction
Destruction of habitat contributes much to a species' decline. This is the most significant threat but also the most difficult to prevent. The world's booming population growth forces humans to encroach more and more on land that was formerly home to wildlife. A striking example of this comes from the world's rain forests.
Within an estimated 40 years there will be no rain forests left; this is the dire situation that focuses attention on what many regard as a regrettable loss of valuable resources. In fact, many of all medicines known to the Western world have come from tropical rain forest plants. Although rain forests cover only a comparatively small percentage of the planet's land surface, they are home to four fifths of the world's terrestrial vegetation.
As man fells trees to clear the ground for agriculture, the plants, animals, birds, reptiles, and insects die off. A Harvard professor estimated that the loss of forest amounts to 1 percent a year, and this dooms thousands of species to eventual extinction. It is feared that many species will vanish before they are even assigned a scientific name.
Direct Attack
Through the centuries hunters have exterminated lions from Greece and Mesopotamia, hippopotamuses from Nubia, elephants from North Africa, bears and beavers from Britain, and wild oxen from Eastern Europe. During the 1870s and 1880s, hunters slaughtered animals in their millions, what seems quite shocking today was entirely acceptable behaviour then.
Examine the situation of the majestic tiger. Conservation efforts were enforced strictly, but this did little good, and hunters continued to kill tigers in large numbers. Hunters received a hefty wage for their efforts, especially the Siberian Tiger, valued not just for its prized skin but also for its bones, eyes, whiskers, teeth, internal organs, and sexual organs, all prized in traditional Oriental medicine. This high wage encouraged more hunters to break the rules, hence the current situaution.
Trade in elephant ivory, rhino horn, tiger skins, and other animal parts is now a multibillion-dollar black-market business. And it is not limited to large mammals. In 1994 traditional Chinese medicine consumed millions and millions of sea horses, causing the entire sea horse population to be cut in half in some areas of Southeast Asia.
It is not difficult to identify who is to blame when a species is hunted out of existence. Then, what about collectors? An endangered macaw fetches a black-market trader a hefty sum. But when he sells it abroad, he gains more than three and a half times that sum. Once again the high price is put in a higher priority than the law.
Wars and their by-products, growing crowds of refugees, together with a spiraling birthrate, increased pollution, and even tourism, threaten endangered species. Sightseers in powerboats injure the dolphins they flock to see, and underwater noise from the boats can interfere with the dolphins' delicate echo-system.
So what are conservationists doing to preserve threatened species, and how successful are they?
The battle between conservation and extinction rages on. Many charitable organizations pressure governments to adopt stricter conservation laws in order to protect endangered species. Not long ago, for example, various groups met with Chinese officials and won their cooperation in efforts to eliminate the trapping of Asian black bears. These animals had been taken for their bile and gallbladders, which are used in traditional Oriental medicine.
Human Intervention
If all the world's zoos truly put their weight behind captive breeding, and if the public put their weight behind the zoos, then they could between them save all species that are likely to need captive breeding in the foreseeable future. Many such schemes have proved successful.
Doubtful Prospects
Failures occur, nevertheless. Many express concern over the plight of species reintroduced into the wild. The Siberian tiger survives well in captivity, but in the wild it needs about 100 square miles of forest, free of poachers. Additionally, if you put a zoo-raised tiger straight back into this environment, and it will almost certainly starve. A gloomy prospect indeed!
Realistically, not every species has its own specialized team of helpers. And it is not simply a lack of manpower that compounds the problem. No matter how dedicated conservationists are, when faced with official corruption, greed, and indifference as well as war and even the threat of death, what hope have they of success?
King of Such