SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Humanity has wiped out 60% of animal populations since 1970, report finds.
Humanity has wiped out 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles since 1970, leading the world's foremost experts to warn that the annihilation of wildlife is now an emergency that threatens civilisation.
The new estimate of the massacre of wildlife is made in a major report produced by WWF and involving 59 scientists from across the globe. It finds that the vast and growing consumption of food and resources by the global population is destroying the web of life, billions of years in the making, upon which human society ultimately depends for clean air, water and everything else.
"We are sleepwalking towards the edge of a cliff" said Mike Barrett, executive director of science and conservation at WWF. "If there was a 60% decline in the human population, that would be equivalent to emptying North America, South America, Africa, Europe, China and Oceania. That is the scale of what we have done."
"This is far more than just being about losing the wonders of nature, desperately sad though that is," he said. "This is actually now jeopardising the future of people. Nature is not a 'nice to have' – it is our life-support system."
(Score: 0, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 31 2018, @04:00PM (5 children)
Everything is interconnected. Those industries don't exist just for the fun of it; they do the things they do, because they are being paid by "The People" to do those things—including the random poor Africans.
Therefore, the only way to solve this issue is to figure out as precisely as possible who has to pay for what, and the most self-sustaining and humane way to make that calculation is Capitalism. We need much more precise, much finer-grained property rights.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 31 2018, @08:33PM
You will repeat it while in a gas chamber line.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday November 01 2018, @09:05AM (1 child)
If one wants to insist capitalism is the way to go, this is the crux of the problem. As of now far too many costs, from top to bottom, get passed along as external costs, ignored by those who profit from it and ignored by society in general until it causes a massive problem. If we build the actual cost into the things we use, most people will be forced to cut back on the excesses of their lifestyles. And no, despite the hysteria of those who oppose cutting back, we don't have to resort to reducing our lifestyles to that of hunter-gatherers, simply continuing to strive to increase efficiency and reduce waste will effect a change. Paying the full cost of what we use will force that if we are unwilling to do so voluntarily.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 01 2018, @03:48PM
Your comment is what is meant by the text you left out of the quote: "We need much more precise, much finer-grained property rights."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 01 2018, @02:02PM (1 child)
true, true. soldiers fighting in overseas oil-rich deserts should automatically get some discount at the pump station back home ...
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Friday November 02 2018, @05:02PM
Last time I was overseas carrying a rifle and ammunition in an oil-rich desert, I got a nice bump in pay for "hazardous duty."
Of course, since in that oil-rich 140°F desert, I was provided a canvas tent, a cot, and a cold-weather sleeping bad to aid in sleeping, I got a nice reduction in pay via the elimination of my "Basic allowance for Quarters" pay.
The BAQ was just slightly larger than the amount of hazardous duty pay, meaning my check went *down*. My family back home still had to pay the same rent as before, of course....
On the plus side, all the gasoline we used in-country was free, as I understand it, courtesy of the Saudi government. It was more pinkish than orange and smelled faintly sweet, which I assumed was because we were consuming it closer to where it was grown.
Despite the overrated adventure and excitement, on the whole, it was not a financial win.