ACCELERATED EXTINCTION in the new world

Jan 2009

While standing in line one day at a small grocery and supply store in central Ontario, I happened to overhear a fellow ask the person next to him, "What's the point in trying to save endangered species? If the thing is on the way out, so be it. It's all those damn tree-huggers that are always raising a stink, trying to save this and that."

I felt a sudden jolt of frustration, shock, and disbelief at the complete ignorance of the statement. I wanted to speak up and say hey buddy, it's just not as simple as that. But I then realized that in a way, this individual has helped me see even more clearly, due to his lack of understanding, ego, and total absence of humility before nature, why we are in the mess that we're in.

His comments so perfectly encapsulated precisely what has been wrong in North America since the first Europeans landed on this continent.
The mindset has and still is, regrettably, to a large extent, that wildlife is something for us to oversee, control, use and manipulate as we like, or do away with if we so please if it is perceived as a threat to safety.

Since the advent of the industrial revolution and up until now, the rate of extinction worldwide has reached catastrophic levels. It has been speculated that in just the last 400 years, or so, wildlife extinctions are between six and fifty times higher than during most of our planet's history.

And the biggest tragedy in all of this is, as the late great biologist and author R.D. Lawrence once said to me "We know what we are doing wrong, but we continue to do it!"

Flora and fauna continue to disappear, while science frantically applies band-aid solutions, but quite often, as our history will attest, they are applied at a point after the wound has been left to fester and worsen to the stage where proper help comes too late. And all the while, the actions of humans who have created the problems in the first place, continue mostly unchallenged and unabated. Again, we know what we are doing wrong, but we are allowed to continue to do it.

What's the harm in one more hotel built next to a beach where endangered leather back turtles lay their eggs? What's the harm in one more pipeline being built straight through caribou calving grounds?
What's the harm in building a gigantic subdivision smack-dab in the middle of the spotted owl's nesting range?
What's the harm in building a new four lane expressway for tourists that slices right through pristine and ecologically critical travel corridors for wolf , grizzly, black bear, and myriad other animals?
What's the problem with using our oceans and rivers as open sewers and garbage dumps? What's the problem with polluting pure ground water aquifers?

What's the problem with the extirpation, over hunting and rampant slaughter of large carnivore species like wolverine, bear, wolf, and cougar? In addition, look now at the peril facing the polar bear. Look at how few Florida panthers are left in the wild. Go ask the fishermen in Newfoundland about their collapsed fishing industry and the absence of the gray whale.

Birds, reptiles, mammals and amphibians are all fair game. We have permanently lost and continue to lose members of these four groups and many that are not yet lost are considered either at risk, threatened or endangered.

It is pretty much a moot point to examine the various catalysts that continue to exacerbate an already serious international environmental situation because we already know what they are. The real tragedy and main point of contention is that they are, as mentioned, allowed to continue, thus perpetuating the ruination of the planet. The harsh reality is that bit by bit the healthy and intact parts of our natural world are being chipped away at. Without a doubt, our downfall will be a result of our overly consumptive, hedonistic and selfish view and treatment of our natural world.

Since about 1600, over 500 species ( and subspecies) of indigenous plants and animals have succumbed to extinction. It should be noted that these are not animals that have been naturally and slowly selected for extinction, over potentially thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years. On the contrary, these animals and plants that have been snuffed out, within a few centuries or even decades. A classic example of this was the massacre of many millions of bison on the Great Plains which at one time made up one of the largest animal herds on the planet. They were also wiped out within about 70 years.

And as another creature dies off in totality, we should all be looking in the mirror, because what happens to them will affect us eventually.
Their disappearance is a reflection of what we are doing to ourselves, only not quite in such a finite and blatant way. The good news is that we still have some time to get things right!

However, a commonly held hypothesis by more than a few scientists deduces that without a major correction in our attitudes and actions, and given the current rate of accelerated extermination of various life forms, the demise of human kind is inevitable if we do not change. Our failure to not adjust our full speed ahead, damn the environment and all else attitude, will culminate at some point in a collision with a rock wall.

With the ever increasing destruction of valuable ecosystems around the globe we are, in effect, also doing ourselves great harm since, as an animal, we are connected to what we are destroying whether we want to accept this or not. The human species is no different than any other when it comes to our reliance on a healthy natural world. Humans and all other living things require it for survival.

If we choose not to embrace the reality that we are not separate from the rest of the animal kingdom, and decide not to heed a greater moral and ethical commitment to the protection of nature,….. we clearly do so at our own risk. Have we the will to change as much as may be required? Let's all hope so.