More: Influential Harvard biologist, Dr. E.O. Wilson, has made a radical proposal to save wildlife from the Sixth Extinction. Speaking to the Smithsonian Institution journal, Wilson says humans must withdraw from half the planet's area to prevent a "biological holocaust". He envisions a planetary network of wildlife corridors from north to south poles to allow species to move with temperature changes and west to east to allow species to move in accordance with changing rainfall patterns.
{14.05.11, Refuge for Ice Bears} This
web of life covering Earth is within the realm of the possible. The Yellowstone to Yukon conservation initiative running 2,000 miles from Wyoming to Canada's Yukon territory is a beginning.
{19.11.11, Transboundary Conservation} The initiative encompasses an entire mountain ecosystem and allows animals 502,000 square miles of space in which to live naturally. Of course capitalists will oppose mightily any effort to set aside land and the mineral resources it might contain solely for conservation purposes. The fact that no new national parks have been designated in this century indicates Capital's depth of opposition. According to Wilson scale is important to preserving species. Small habitat areas without links to other similar habitats become biological islands. Genetic health and diversity decline; animals become more vulnerable to disease and disasters without the ability to disperse. Even though his theory of island biogeography is regarded as authoritative, the US currently protects only 4% of its land area. Wilson wants to protect half the Earth! Wilson says battles are where most progress is made, and the goal is half the Earth.
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| only known drawing of an Oceanic parrot, Vava'u 1793 |
{21.08.14}The Sixth Great Extinction of species in the planet's history and the only one caused by human activity shows no sign of slowing. The ICUN recently updated its Red List adding 361 bird species following a major taxonomic review of non-perching birds. 87 of those added face extinction. The review determined that many formally classified sub-species or races are actually distinct species. For example the Somali ostrich is now considered a separate species of ostrich
(Struthio molybdophanes), and it is listed as vulnerable because of egg-stealing and hunting by humans. Two New Caledonia birds were added to the List as possibly extinct: buttonquail and nightjar. The Sinu paraket from Columbia was also listed as possibly extinct. The Guam kingfisher is now listed as extinct in the wild since biologists took the last remaining kingfishers off the island in 1986 because of predation by invasive snake species. 124 Guam kingfishers live in zoos around the world. Since 1500 Earth has lost 140 different birds or 1% of its total bird species. Birds are one of the most studied animal groups on Earth, so the extinction of bird species is a valid indication of the progress of the Sixth Great Extinction
{08.05.07, Turtle Island}. Conservation has undoubtably saved some species from annihilation, but biologists warn that without human protection animals could suffer an extinction event that rivals the one that ended the reign of dinosaurs.