Species extinction overblown

IN AL GORE’S “An Inconvenient Truth” is the assertion of a mass species extinction crisis that is now thousands of times higher than previous background rates. In Gavin Schmidt and Joshua Wolfe’s “Climate Change” we find an estimate of 10 million to 30 million species on the earth. Also it is stated that with a temperature increase of only a couple of degrees, 20 to 30 percent of the species so far assessed will likely be threatened with extinction.

How believable are these statements?

It is useful to go back to the 1980s to the “Global 2000 Report to the President.” This report stated that between 1980 and 2000, “Extinctions of plant and animal species will increase dramatically. Hundreds of thousands of species — perhaps as many as 20 percent of all species on earth — will be irretrievably lost as their habitats vanish, especially in tropical forests.”

Well, 20 percent of 10 million to 30 million is 2 million to 6 million species lost — by 2000.

This did not happen!

No one really knows if there has been a gain or loss of species. There is no doubt that there is a generation of new species and that there is a loss of some species.

As man encroaches into new areas, we need to pay attention to wildlife that becomes threatened. There is no excuse for so-called scientists to exaggerate species extinction beyond all reason.

A good balanced book titled “CO2, Global Warming and Species Extinctions” by C. D. Idso and S. B. Idso gives many references that show real-world studies that show that birds, butterflies, amphibians, marine life and other animals benefit from increased CO2 and warming. So it is not likely that global warming will lead to species extinctions.

There is a problem of species extinctions due to habitat loss by humans taking more land needed to serve a growing population.

The 1980 scientists were on the right track, they just got carried away with their alarm. HOWARD MILES Albuquerque