Extinction isn’t just for wildlife
Re Act now to save wildlife, Editorial, Sept. 18 I commend the Star’s call to action regarding the precipitous loss of wildlife. But I have come to wonder if this presumption that the natural world is ours isn’t part of our problem.
In broad terms, half of the natural world is already gone. Half of Earth’s land surface is devoted to human agriculture. Half of Earth’s fresh water is diverted for human consumption. Humans have cut the number of trees on Earth in half. Out of sight and out of mind, the oceans seem to be more than half dead.
If our collective environmental footprint doubles one more time, there will be nothing left of the natural world. And long before the natural world is gone, it will have ceased to function in ways that are vital not only to our economies, but also to our survival as a species.
For some perspective, at only 3 per cent annual growth, the global economy would double in less than 25 years. If our economic growth stays coupled, as it is now, to the consumption and destruction of the natural world we could have less than one generation before a lifeless planet is all ours.
I have no idea why we are so cavalier about this breathtaking culling of life. Extinction is contagious — eventually we will catch it too. Kevin Farmer, Toronto
“Extinction is contagious — eventually we will catch it too.” KEVIN FARMER TORONTO
What did the furry, black-eyed bat ever do to us, Canada? It gave us flowers and less bugging insects and we gave it a 94 per cent extinction rate.
The bat is only one of 400 species that have taken a hit because of us. When are we going to start caring? Nikita Chauhan, Brampton Canada, as a whole, is failing both nature and ourselves when it comes to conservation. It would be not only in the interest of the people, but the government, to conserve and preserve the diversity for future generations.
The fact that Canada has saved 10.6 per cent of its wilderness and diversity is laughable. More research, laws and regulations need to be in place before Canada’s biodiversity is completely extinct.
This is not an issue of the future generation, it is for the present. Anthony Maione, Toronto