The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
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    UN Fears "Irreversible" Damage To Natural Environment

    By oleeb on Tue, 05/11/2010 - 12:04pm |

     

    The greatest possible sin, IMHO, would be to allow the destruction of our environment to reach the point where humanity will have killed itself off by destroying this magnificent and bountiful planet that is mother to us all.  If we do not act swiftly to right the wrongs of industrial expolitation of the earth, all other issues will become moot.  Read this article now running on the AP and take heed: DO something!

    UN fears 'irreversible' damage to natural environment

    GENEVA (AFP) - The UN warned on Monday that "massive" loss in life-sustaining natural environments was likely to deepen to the point of being irreversible after global targets to cut the decline by this year were missed.

    As a result of the degradation, the world is moving closer to several "tipping points" beyond which some ecosystems that play a part in natural processes such as climate or the food chain may be permanently damaged, a United Nations report said.

    The third "Global Biodiversity Outlook" found that deforestation, pollution or overexploitation were damaging the productive capacity of the most vulnerable environments, including the Amazon rainforest, lakes and coral reefs.

    "This report is saying that we are reaching the tipping point where the irreversible damage to the planet is going to be done unless we act urgently," Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, told journalists.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100510/ts_afp/unenvironmentbiodiversityeconomy

     

    Comments

    It's a crime wave against Earth, oleeb. It makes my heart hurt to think of us as perpetrator and victim rolled into one. But, I will sandbag the despair and get back to work. There is much to do.


    by ~flowerchild~ (not verified) on Tue, 05/11/2010 - 12:52pm

    You are right. There is much work to do. If it goes undone there is simply no future.


    by oleeb (not verified) on Tue, 05/11/2010 - 1:51pm

    It's always a pleasure to agree vigorously with someone who often sees things very differently from the way I do on other issues. This post deserves attention, because time is running out.

    That was all I intended to say, but as I was writing, I remembered that I wrote a song about this topic that is up on YouTube as a music video. I'm not really trying to tout it, and I don't think it gets many visitors anymore anyway, but anyone who wants to waste a few minutes is welcome to pay it a visit, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuIxDMj3DNA


    by Fred Moolten (not verified) on Tue, 05/11/2010 - 3:16pm

    If can get our act together and protect lands and ecosystems until 2050, we all may have a chance. 2050 is the year that many believe that the human population will stabilized. Fertility rates are plummeting world-wide as a side product of better women's rights, better survival rates of kids, and simply that a technological world is an expensive world and kids are expensive.

    When our population isn't always moving crazily up, then the environment might have a chance. But we've got to get to 2050 without killing everything.


    by matyra (not verified) on Tue, 05/11/2010 - 3:19pm

    We are way past "irreversible" effects. Now we just need to somehow keep from destroying ourselves and what's left of this beautiful Planet.


    by Dorn76 (not verified) on Tue, 05/11/2010 - 3:35pm

    Hot air from Al Gore is the primary source of greenhouse gas.


    by Sailormarlowe (not verified) on Tue, 05/11/2010 - 5:46pm

    Brilliant comment! Add so much!!


    by Overreach THIS! (not verified) on Tue, 05/11/2010 - 8:37pm

    We've only got one planet.

    We've screwed up most of the rivers.

    And now we've made a perfect mess of the Gulf of Mexico, an enormous ecosystem, still getting much worse every day.

    Where does it end? Where?


    by Overreach THIS! (not verified) on Tue, 05/11/2010 - 8:42pm

    Hey, remember Pete Seegar's song:

    "Roll on, roll on, Monongahela
    Where the catfish and the carp left long ago.
    You used to be so pure
    But now you're just a sewer,
    Messin up the Gulf of Mexico"

    I mean, the area most affected (so far) by the oil spill is just east of a spreading gigantic Dead Zone.

    http://www.wiserearth.org/article/fe12e7359bdb2fee5b982bf873f423ca


    by neoboho (not verified) on Tue, 05/11/2010 - 11:06pm

    And we'll never fix this either. Because we'd have to increase taxes to do that. It is worth noting that much of our aging and increasingly decrepit public infrastructure was built by government at a time when taxes actually made this a doable proposition. I don't think there is the slightest chance in hell those who now control the wealth of the country would ever agree to pony up the money it would take to fix all the stuff that needs looking after. I know I've read estimates of the cost for this endeavor which runs into the trillions of dollars. There is pretty much a zero grasp of the idea that all this stuff won't last forever or meet the needs of a growing population. We have a lot of people who are willfully blind to this elementary idea.


    by thepeoplechoose (not verified) on Wed, 05/12/2010 - 4:38am