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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: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 31 2018, @05:34PM (10 children)
I watched a documentary on self-described "Minimalists" once. This guy has very few possessions, and said: "I don't need much. If I need something in the moment, I just get on my skateboard, roll down to the nearby convenience store, and buy it. I need no car, no refrigerator, not STUFF to manage."
WHAT?!
Where the fuck do you think that skateboard came from? The smooth roads you use? The convenience store stocked with vittles, refrigerated for your safety? That running water coming to your temporary abode? And on and on and on!
These fuckers, inclulding the Amish, get the joy of pretending like they're doing the small-footprint thing, but in reality they are totally dependent on the mass of consumers, whose leftover productivity provides enough for them to subsist.
They're like all those "empowered" single-mothers who "ain't need no man", but who live off the tax monies of millions of men, most of whom are straight and white.
They are delusional.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday October 31 2018, @05:55PM (4 children)
Naahhhhh - you're not getting away with that one.
The Amish, Mennonites, and any others like them, are at least mindful of resources. Probably the worst among them are as wasteful as the last American generation BEFORE the 1930's. That is, you'll find waste, but it isn't blatant, obvious planned obselescence consumerism. And, the best of them use no more resources than people in the 1600's or 1700's. There's a spectrum among these people, for observing the old ways. None of them are as wasteful as the average American. Few are probably as wasteful as the average Brit or European.
The typical American doesn't have the slightest care about resources, whether they be natural, processed, human, or whatever. In the American mind, resources are to be used, exploited, sold, commoditized, or otherwise turned into profit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 31 2018, @05:59PM (2 children)
They are ALL highly dependent on modern technology, especially modern health care. And, pointing to the Amish as an counterexample to the OP is just as absurd as pointing to the poor African farmers; we want a Civilization, not Amish LARPing.
(Score: 2) by Snow on Wednesday October 31 2018, @07:06PM (1 child)
Shared resources (Health care, roads, etc) generally scale differently. If I have a car and want to drive 100km, I require x amount of gas. 1000kms would require 10x gas.
If I build a road for one person to use, it costs y. If 10 people use the road, it still costs y (maybe with slightly higher maintenance costs). It's not a linear increase. Health care is the same idea.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 31 2018, @07:24PM
Smooth Cross-continental roads and robotic prostate surgery aren't something Amish people could even imagine on their own.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday November 01 2018, @01:48AM
There's all degrees of Amish - some use rubber tires, it's against the rules but they do it anyway.
Some of the things they do are more wasteful than modern practices: lighting in their grocery stores is by kerosene... hardly competitive with the efficiency of florescent or LED, though more than compensated for by the lack of air conditioning, but again, the lack of refrigeration can lead to a great deal of waste too... All in all, yes, they lead a simple and ecologically friendly life, but when one's field caught on fire he didn't hesitate to run out to the pole-mounted telephone and call the non-Amish fire department to come out and help save his barn.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Snow on Wednesday October 31 2018, @07:01PM (4 children)
Are you purposely being dense?
- Skateboards are made from dead trees, resin & tiny bit of metal vs a literal ton of metal, various plastics, glass, etc in a car. Therefore skateboard is less than a car (the default transport method).
- The convenience store would have a fridge regardless of this guys personal lifestyle. He, however does not have a fridge, meaning one less fridge was sold/powered up.
You point about the minimalists standing on the shoulders of the 'mass consumer' is misapplied. It's like saying my household water consumption doesn't matter because I am still reliant on the water grid. Apples and oranges.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 31 2018, @07:29PM (3 children)
If that guy didn't live amongst "wasteful" consumers, then there would be no convenience store. There would be no smooth roads; there would be no cheap skateboards composed of hard-won insights into designing and manufacturing fiddly bits of of plastic and meta and wheels at enormous volumes.
His "minimalism" is utterly dependent on the vast majority of people NOT following his minimalism.
Hey, guess what? You don't get a network of industrial pipes supplying potable water unless you live amongst people who want to piss into a clean toilet or lounge in a bubble bath because they're bored.
The only one being dense here is you; you fail to see the world for what it is.
(Score: 2) by Snow on Wednesday October 31 2018, @10:11PM (2 children)
>If that guy didn't live amongst "wasteful" consumers, then there would be no convenience store.
Why is that? If everyone wanted to shop at their local convenience store (over, say Walmart), then there would obviously be a market for convenience stores and the invisible hand would deliver.
>There would be no smooth roads
Sure there would. Goods still need to get to the convince store. Roads could be narrower to accommodate less traffic, and the lower impact skateboard wouldn't cause the road to wear as quickly as cars do. You could add smaller skate-paths at lower cost (like current bike paths).
Following your logic, it would make no difference if everyone just drove an 18 wheel tractor/trailer everywhere and only shopped at the Walmart 3 states over.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday November 01 2018, @01:51AM (1 child)
The thing that skewers skateboards, bicycles, and all other manner of "ecologically friendly commuter transportation" is: rain, sleet, snow, blistering hot days, plagues of biting insects, and all the other times when people would just rather travel in their cocoon. Sadly, most people choose not to afford multiple commute options so they just use the three ton SUV all the time.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 01 2018, @02:14AM
I don't see why anything "skewers" human powered transport?
I bicycle when the weather is nice and use a car when it's not. As a result I save perhaps a thousand miles on my car every year, mostly short trips (which are alleged to be not so great for the car anyway). I still need all the infrastructure (roads, etc), but at least I use a bit less gasoline and my car might last a few years longer. I also get some exercise and save the cost (and the drive) to a gym...
Even though I work in the automotive industry, it's kind of fun to thumb my nose at a gas station when I ride by on a bike--you aren't getting my money today!