Sunday, October 31, 2010

Save the Wild

1% of Blue whales remain
Update:  The Tenth Conference on Biodiversity in concluded yesterday. The delegates agreed to set 20 goals intended to protect biodiversity. Perhaps the most important is the goal to half the extinction rate by 2020. Preservation targets fall short of what many conservationists wanted. The delegates set a target of 17% of the Earth's land surface to be set aside as protected areas, up from 12.5%. The oceans' protected area goal was increased from 0% to 10%. The Nogoya Protocol is expected to become effective in 2012. The EU, US, France, Norway and Japan are contributing financial support.

{26.10.10}After four years of writing Persona Non Grata, it is clear to US Person that the natural world is being crushed beneath the impacts of human generated climate change, pollution, and development. The degradation of nature cannot continue without the bleak visions of dystopia becoming a reality. The World Wildlife Fund warned recently that the humans will need to find another Earth within the near future if the destruction of this planet continues unabated. A third of species faces extinction. The world will face a prolonged and severe drought by 2040 caused by climate change.  The worse news is, despite efforts to find another Earth there is none in this solar system. All other possible worlds found by science so far are at impossible distances from Earth or are uninhabitable gas giants similar to Jupiter and Saturn.  Besides, only a relatively few elite will voyage to distant worlds in a future too remote for most of us.  The rational conclusion is that Earth must be spared. There is a meeting of governments right now at the Convention on Biodiversity considering the fate of humanity's only home. The question is: should 20% of our seas and lands be set aside as a permanent wild reserve by 2020? US Person thinks it should be a larger amount, but has already voted at Avaaz.org, yes.  You can make your voice heard too, thanks to technology.  The conference ends Friday. Avoid the collapse of a living planet, or the ancient Mayans could be correct.