Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout: The Making of a Sensible Environmentalist (64 page)

It is very frustrating when a trusted publication such as the
National Geographic
resorts to sensationalism, exaggeration, and misleading illustrations. One finds enough bad science and misinformation in the popular press as it is. One can only hope that the present tendency to ignore science and logic, rightly referred to as a “bad intellectual climate” by the environmental philosopher Henry H. Webster, will eventually come to an end.
[31]
As of this writing, it seems we will have to wait a while longer for the
National Geographic
to change its tune on this subject. Its website contains the following passage:

Today, many scientists think the evidence indicates a
sixth mass extinction
is under way. The blame for this one, perhaps the fastest in Earth’s history, falls firmly on the shoulders of humans. By the year 2100, human activities such as pollution, land clearing, and overfishing may have driven more than half of the world’s marine and land species to extinction.
[32]

It is ridiculous to suggest that extinctions are occurring more rapidly today than they did during the Permian or Cretaceous events when hundreds of thousands of species disappeared. Yet these pessimistic prophecies are popular with the environmental movement. Wouldn’t it be better to have an environmental philosophy that looked for positive outcomes, especially where we could help out a bit?

Many references in the scientific literature and the media suggest human-caused climate change will drive a mass extinction event as the earth warms. This is despite the fact that most biodiversity can be found in the warmer tropical climates. A recent paper published in the journal
Science
makes the case that climate change is not a major driver of extinction but that hunting and land use change are the primary causes.
[33]
The lead author, Kathy Willis, states, “alarmist reports were leading to ill-founded biodiversity policies in government and some major conservation groups.” She says climate change has become a buzz word that is taking priority while, in practice, changes in human use of land have a greater impact on the survival of species. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, a leading authority on endangered species,
[34]
supports this conclusion.

In May 2010
Science
Magazine, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), published an article claiming that 20 percent of the world’s lizards could become extinct by 2080 due to climate change.
[35]
“This rivals some of the greatest
extinctions
of any organisms in the geologic record,” said the lead author, Barry Sinervo of the University of California-Santa Cruz.
[36]
At 200 sites in Mexico that were surveyed for 48 species of lizards, the researchers found that, “Since 1975, 12 percent of local populations have gone extinct.” What this means is that they did not observe individuals of the 48 species at 12 percent of the sites where they were previously observed in 1975. It is reasonable to expect that on a given day in 2009 one might not see 100 percent of the lizard species that were observed on a given day in 1975 at all 200 sites. Yet each species that was not observed is declared extinct. But note that they say “local populations” have gone extinct, not that “species” have gone extinct. It is not correct to use the word extinction when a species is no longer present in a certain locale but still survives elsewhere. The correct word, as explained previously, is extirpation, which refers to the local loss of a species due to land use change, hunting,
etc.
The authors do not claim that a single species of Mexican lizard has gone extinct, only that they didn’t observe any at certain locations.

From this dubious data the authors, using a computer model of course, predict that by 2080, 20 percent of lizard species worldwide will become extinct due to the warming climate. They conclude, “lizards have already crossed a threshold for extinctions caused by climate change.” This is based on the assumption that lizards are getting too hot in the warmer springs, avoiding the sun by hiding under rocks, and therefore not eating enough and failing to reproduce. No evidence for this far-fetched story is presented in the “study.” Yet because
Science
published the article the media carried the story far and wide, including the publications
Nature
,
Scientific American
,
Discover
, and
New Scientist
. The climate alarmists have captured
Science
and it seems they will publish any fabrication to push their agenda of imminent doom.

It is worth noting that most of the extinctions of large land animals caused by humans occurred thousands of years ago when there were no guns and when the human population was miniscule compared to today. It is also significant that even though our population has more than tripled since the early part of the last century when we began to care about endangered species, the number of species going extinct has declined. Today thousands of programs are devoted to preventing the extinction of endangered species. They don’t always succeed, often due to unrelenting poaching for hides, horns, and supposed aphrodisiacs. But many of these efforts have succeeded and as we gain more experience and as more people become involved there is still hope for many species that were driven to the brink of extinction. Certainly one of the most worthwhile endeavors for people who care about nature and biodiversity is to support species recovery programs.

To conclude, there is no real-world evidence that we are experiencing “mass extinction” today. The most effective way to prevent future extinctions is to set aside large wilderness areas and to include biodiversity conservation in land use planning for forestry and agriculture. Preventing illegal hunting and fishing will also be helpful.

[1]
. Edward. O. Wilson, Harvard University, Editor,
Biodiversity
(Washington, D.C., National Academy of Sciences/Smithsonian Institution, 1988).

[2]
. David Ulansey, editor, “Mass Extinction Underway,” The Current Mass Extinction, 2010, http://www.well.com/~davidu/extinction.html

[3]
. “Richard Leakey,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Leakey

[4]
. “Norman Myers, “Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Myers

[5]
. “The Cambrian Explosion,” fossilmuseum.net, http://www.fossilmuseum.net/Paleobiology/CambrianExplosion.htm

[6]
. “Permian-Triassic Extinction Event,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian-Triassic_extinction_event

[7]
. “Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction Event,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous-Tertiary_extinction_event

[8]
. “Carolina Parakeet,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_Parakeet

[9]
. “Biodiversity Assessment: Avon Wheatbelt,”
Australian Natural Resources Atlas
, June 15, 2005, http://www.anra.gov.au/topics/vegetation/assessment/wa/ibra-aw-mammals-extinct.html

[10]
. N. Carlile, D. Priddel, F Zino, C. Natividad, and D. B. Wingate, “Review of Successful Recovery Programs for Threatened Subtropical Petrels,”
Marine Ornithology
31 (2003): 185-192,. http://www.marineornithology.org/PDF/31_2/31_2_185-192.pdf

[11]
. “Wildlife Habitat at Risk,”
Vancouver Province
, Associated Press Wire Story, March 12, 1996, p. A16

[12]
. “Recent Trends and Current Status of Forest Resources,” UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 1995, “http://www.fao.org/docrep/W4345E/w4345e03.htm#recent%20trends%20and%20current%20status%20of%20forest%20resources

[13]
. Correspondence, Patrick Moore to HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, May 14, 1996, http://www.beattystreetpublishing.com/confessions/references/PMtoHRH

[14]
. Correspondence, Prince Philip to Patrick Moore, May 27, 1996, http://www.beattystreetpublishing.com/confessions/references/HRHtoPM

[15]
. Nigel Dudley, Don Gilmour, and Jean-Paul Jeanrenaud,
Forests for Life
(Gland, Switzerland: WWF and IUCN, 1997).

[16]
. “10% of World’s Tree Species Threatened with Extinction,” WWF News Release, August 25, 1998, http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/press_releases/?1846/10-OF-WORLDS-TREE-SPECIES-THREATENED-WITH-EXTINCTION

[17]
. “The World List of Threatened Trees,” World Conservation Monitoring Center, World Conservation Press, 1998, http://www.unep-wcmc.org/resources/publications/otherpubs.htm

[18]
. “Three Trees Native to BC Face Extinction,”
Vancouver Sun
, August 27, 1998, p. A3.

[19]
. “Official Denies Claim Trees Facing Extinction,” Gordon Hamilton,
Vancouver Sun
, September 2, 1998, p. A3.

[20]
. Ibid.

[21]
. M.A. Sanjayan and M.E. Soule., “Moving Beyond Brundtland: The Conservation Value of British

Columbia’s 12 Percent Protected Areas Strategy,” Greenpeace, June 1997.

[22]
. “The Great Bear Rain forest,” Greenpeace, June 1997, p. 21 and p. 8.

[23]
. “Grizzly Bear,” Les Gyug et al., Government of British Columbia, 2004, p.7, http://www.llbc.leg.bc.ca//files/19/70/82/f197082/public/pubdocs/bcdocs/370399/m_grizzlybear.pdf

[24]
. T. L. Slaney et al., “Status of Anadromous Salmon and Trout in British Columbia and Yukon,”
Fisheries
, 21, no. 10 (October 1996): 20-35.

[25]
. Ibid. p. 31.

[26]
. D.A. Levy et al., “Strait of Georgia Fisheries Sustainability Review,” Hatfield Consultants Ltd., West Vancouver, January 1996.

[27]
. E. O. Wilson,
The Diversity of Life
(New York: W.W. Norton, 1992).

[28]
. Virginia Morell and Frans Lanting, “The Sixth Extinction,”
National Geographic
195, no. 2 (February 1999), 42-59, http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/media/ngm/9902/fngm/index.html

[29]
. “Expert Panel Set to Discuss Australian Mammal Extinction Crisis,” CSIRO, August 2009, http://www.csiro.au/multimedia/Australian-Mammal-Extinction-Crisis.html

[30]
. B. Groombridge, ed.,
1994 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals
(Gland, Switzerland: IUCN, 1993).

[31]
. Henry H. Webster, “Some Sources of Persistent Error in Thinking About Resources,”
Forestry Chronicle
75, no. 1 (January/February 1999), 63-66.