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posted by mrpg on Wednesday October 31 2018, @02:30PM   Printer-friendly
from the I'm-fed-up-with-humans dept.

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."


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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday November 01 2018, @01:32AM (4 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday November 01 2018, @01:32AM (#756278)

    stabilize dirt poor societies and stop giving incentives to those with 2+ kids

    A good start, but far from a solution. Incentive economics might work for bots, but real women have pre-menopausal urges to procreate, a percentage of adolescent hormonal insanity that leads to additional large families, and more than the occasional use of child bearing to secure a financially attractive mate. As for sperm donors, there will never be a shortage of able, willing and eager sources.

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  • (Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday November 01 2018, @09:13AM (3 children)

    by Bot (3902) on Thursday November 01 2018, @09:13AM (#756371) Journal

    It worked for western societies, though. Good wages plus divorce laws plus porn.

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    • (Score: 3, Touché) by JoeMerchant on Thursday November 01 2018, @12:12PM (2 children)

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday November 01 2018, @12:12PM (#756423)

      Good wages

      I'd argue the reverse: wages are poor enough that birth control seems an attractive option. If wages were really good, we could all afford to pay for boarding schools.

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      • (Score: 2) by Bot on Monday November 05 2018, @12:47AM (1 child)

        by Bot (3902) on Monday November 05 2018, @12:47AM (#757799) Journal

        but around here in the eighties the wages were more than OK, and the people were already procreating much less.

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        • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday November 05 2018, @01:14PM

          by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday November 05 2018, @01:14PM (#757967)

          I have spent most of my life in Florida - the majority of "working people" around here are paid mostly in sunshine and warm nights, they get just enough cash to cover their cost of transportation to/from the job and a meager dwelling that keeps them from being arrested for homelessness. Food? SNAP. Clothing? Charity.

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