The world will miss its agreed target to stem biodiversity loss by next year, according to experts convening in Cape Town for a landmark conference devoted to biodiversity science.
The goal was agreed at the 6th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in April 2003. Some 123 world ministers committed to “achieve, by 2010, a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the local, national and regional levels, as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on Earth.”
Georgina Mace of Imperial College, London, says that “Biodiversity is fundamental to humans having food, fuel, clean water and a habitable climate. [...] Since 1992, even the most conservative estimates agree that an area of tropical rainforest greater than the size of California has been converted mostly for food and fuel. Species extinction rates are at least 100 times those in pre-human times and are expected to continue to increase.” She adds, “the situation is not hopeless. There are many steps available that would help but we cannot dawdle. Meaningful action should have started years ago. The next best time is now.”
Silent crisis: freshwater species “the most threatened on Earth”
Massive mismanagement and growing human needs for water are causing freshwater ecosystems to collapse, making freshwater species the most threatened on Earth with extinction rates 4 to 6 times higher than their terrestrial and marine cousins, according to conference experts.
Klement Tockner of the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin says that while freshwater ecosystems cover only 0.8% of the earth’s surface, they contain roughly 10% of all animals, including more than 35% of all vertebrates.
“There is clear and growing scientific evidence that we are on the verge of a major freshwater biodiversity crisis,” says Prof. Tockner. “However, few are aware of the catastrophic decline in freshwater biodiversity at both local and global scale. Threats to freshwater biodiversity have now grown to a global scale.”
The human implications of this trend are “immense,” he adds, because freshwater species in rivers, lakes, ground waters, and wetlands provide a diverse array of vital natural services – more than any other ecosystem type.
The problem puts billions of people at risk as biodiversity loss affects water purification, disease regulation, subsistence agriculture and fishing. Some experts predict that by 2025 not a single Chinese river will reach the sea except during floods with tremendous effects for coastal fisheries in China.
Prof. Tockner says freshwater ecosystems and their species also absorb and bury an significant volume of the planet’s carbon — about 200 million tonnes, or almost 3% of the carbon humans add annually to the atmosphere.
“Although small in area, these freshwater aquatic systems can affect regional carbon balances,” he says. “Freshwater ecosystems will be the first victims of both climate change and rising demands on water supplies. And the pace of extinctions is quickening – especially in hot spot areas around the Mediterranean, in Central America, China and throughout Southeast Asia.”
“Despite their pivotal ecological and economic importance, freshwater ecosystems have not been of primary concern in policy making,” adds Prof. Tockner. “Only recently did the European Union take the initiative to improve this situation through the EC Biodiversity Strategy. And in the U.S., recent Supreme Court decisions have made wetlands and small streams more vulnerable to loss.
Read the complete article HERE.
2 comments:
Whenever i see the post like your's i feel that there are still helpful people who share information for the help of others, it must be helpful for other's. thanx and good job.
Management Dissertation Proposal
The world's fresh water shortage problems are just beginning for many. Unfortunately, this is going to be a major issue in the coming years.
We need viable options. I came across a interesting technology called atmospheric water generators that harvest the water from moisture in the air.
The use UV light, Ozone, and a multi-step Water Filtration and Water Purification process to purify the water. I don't that these would be the perfect solution for all the world's fresh water needs. But I anticipate that water will in the near future cost more than gas, and we need all the options we can find.
Post a Comment