WR - Don't believe in global warming, then explain a mass extintion happening now!

02-03-2008, 01:10 PM

ddoubleez

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Don't believe in global warming, then explain a mass extintion happening now!

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Almost all scientists agree that the planet is experincing the fastest mass extention the planet has ever seen.....

Quote:

Amazon rainforest 'could become a desert'
Independent on Sunday, The, Jul 23, 2006 by Geoffrey Lean IN MANAUS
The vast Amazon rainforest is on the brink of being turned into desert, with catastrophic consequences for the world's climate, alarming research suggests. And the process, which would be irreversible, could begin as early as next year.

Studies by the blue-chip Woods Hole Research Centre, carried out in Amazonia, have concluded that the forest cannot withstand more than two consecutive years of drought without breaking down.

Scientists say that this would spread drought into the northern hemisphere, including Britain, and could massively accelerate global warming with incalculable consequences.

Quote:

The Current Mass Extinction
By Kate Wong

The phrase mass extinction usually brings to mind events sparked by dramatic environmental change, such as the asteroid impact that led to the demise of the dinosaurs and many other species 65 million years ago. In fact, five such large-scale extinctions have been identified in the fossil record, and according to findings presented on Friday at the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Mexico City, another is under way. This time the cause is nothing so dramatic as a giant asteroid or a radical shift in climate. Rather, it appears, human pressure is to blame.

Like the other mass extinctions, says University of Michigan paleontologist Catherine Badgely, the current crisis is worldwide, affecting a broad range of species. Certain species of vertebrates (animals with backbones) are particularly vulnerable, she reports, especially those with small geographic ranges or narrow subsistence requirements. The numbers are alarming. One quarter of all mammals are endangered or extinct, as are 15 percent of birds. In both groups the larger species are in the most trouble.

The human pressures threatening these creatures include habitat destruction and modification, overhunting, introduction of foreign species, and the increase in carbon dioxide concentrations. Still, extinction of the animals currently designated as endangered is not inevitable, Badgely says. But in order to preserve them, there needs to be a massive change in human actions.

Earth faces 6th major extinction:

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn4797

Quote:

(CNN) -- The complex web of life on Earth, what scientists call "biodiversity," is in serious trouble.

"Biodiversity includes all living things that we depend on for our economies and our lives," explained Brooks Yeager, vice president of global programs at the World Wildlife Fund in Washington, D.C.

"It's the forests, the oceans, the coral reefs, the marine fish, the algae, the insects that make up the living world around us and which we couldn't do without," he said.

Nearly 2 million species of plants and animals are known to science and experts say 50 times as many may not yet be discovered.

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