Posted on 06/03/2019 6:19:03 AM PDT by Kaslin
Will about a million species go extinct in the next few years if we don’t act to curb climate change?
An assessment report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) says so.
The mainstream media reacted with the credence a devout religious person would give to a sacred text. “1 Million Species Are Threatened with Extinction. And Humans are to Blame” was a typical headline.
But the claim was foolish. Why?
Like the periodic assessment reports on climate change from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the report’s primary objective seems to be to blame humans for creating chaos.
Reality suggests otherwise.
While it is not impossible for humans to drive a species to extinction, extinction has been due mostly to unregulated hunting and exploitation of specific species for trade.
Elephants, tigers, whales, and a host of other mammals have faced (and some continue to face) the extinction from illegal hunting. While some, like the Tasmanian tiger, are already extinct because of excessive hunting, others are making a comeback after hunting was regularized or prohibited.
Other, smaller species linked in the ecological chain with these mammals are at risk if certain key species go extinct.
But the IPBES report blames not just hunting or habitat destruction but everyday activities of human civilization. It says the top three drivers of extinctions are land and sea use (general development, logging, mining, and harvesting), hunting and fishing (including trade), and climate change.
While I agree on hunting and habitat destruction, I have yet to identify a major land mammal that went extinct in the last 100 or even the last 10,000 years due to climate change. Moreover, both hunting and (legal) habitat destruction are declining.
Governments around the world have established thousands of protected wildlife areas, not just on land but also in the sea. As an environmental scientist, I have worked in the Special Protected Area of Southern Portugal, home to numerous endangered and vulnerable bird species, and in the tiger reserve adjoining the Sahyadri hills in central India, where local communities cooperated with the government to protect tigers.
Tigers are making a comeback in India. Their population has increased by 30 percent in 8 years, from about 1,400 in 2006 to about 2,200 in 2014—a testament to the concentrated efforts to stop illegal hunting and protect habitats. Polar bear numbers have increased dramatically over the past 50 years. Protected areas are helping other endangered species to recover, too, like the 25 on this list
With both hunting and habitat destruction regularized or restricted by all major nations, the IPBES’s report focuses on climate change.
But blaming climate change for extinction fails the test of truth.
First, there’s the problem that climate just isn’t changing as fast as feared.
The IPCC’s assessment reports rely, for their claims about future warming, on computer climate models. But the models predict far more warming than actually observed. That means we can’t rely on them to predict future temperature. And that means we can’t rely on them to predict future species extinction driven by future temperature.
Second, there’s the problem that even if global temperature were rising as rapidly as the IPCC warns, it wouldn’t threaten rampant species extinction.
My master’s degree focused on ecological responses to climate change. After completing it, I researched the impact of climate change on global marine life at some of the world’s leading research institutes.
In all my studies, I found hardly any evidence to support the IPBES’s outlandish claims about species extinction driven by human-induced global warming.
Key species in the sea and on land adapt well even to sharp changes in temperature. They survived greater warming in the Holocene Climate Optimum (about 9000–5000 B.C.), the Minoan Warm Period (about 1500 B.C.), the Roman Warm Period (about 250 B.C. to A.D. 450), and the Medieval Warm Period (about A.D. 1000–1200). There’s no reason why they won’t survive the current warm period.
What would really threaten species? A new ice age. Not one like the Little Ice Age (LIA) (about A.D. 1350–1850, peaking around 1650–1750), though that did great harm to humanity as failed crops led to hunger and increased vulnerability to disease. Declining energy output from the sun over the next few decades could well put us back into something similar, though our improved agricultural and trade methods would likely prevent suffering on any scale remotely like what prevailed then.
The LIA doesn’t appear to have caused significant species extinctions. But a real ice age? That’s another story altogether.
The one that ended around 11,700 years ago saw vast stretches of the Northern Hemisphere under ice sheets up to 3 miles thick. It’s safe to say little survived under them. And in terms of ice age cycles, many scientists think we’re due for one “soon”—that is, beginning in the next thousand years or so.
A million species threatened by “climate change”? Well, climate change as defined by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (“a change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and that is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods”) isn’t likely to bring about any warming exceeding that of the warm periods mentioned above.
Which of course means it’s not likely to drive millions of species extinct. In fact, it will be a miracle if the gradual change in climate causes any alarming extinctions at all.
Only illegal hunting and habitat destruction (despite protection by governments) continue to threaten endangered species. Even in the worst case, they won’t cause species extinctions in the millions.
Hmmm. Will there be something new that pops up to take their place? :-)
Reality suggests otherwise.
ENVIRONMENTALISM = emotionalism & demagoguery + hatred of industrial civilization & economic progress (both which are necessary for mass prosperity) + devaluation of man + hatred of man’s life + bogus claims + dishonesty + fake data + false data + phony data + manipulation of data + exaggeration + scare tactics + paranoia + hysteria + fake compassion for the masses + evasion of reality (that benefits of capitalism outweighs any harm) + desire for destruction, suffering, and misery of both the rich and the masses through socialism + desire for omnipotent and omniscient big government + desire for force and violation of God-given natural rights + desire for power and control
I hope so. I’m sick of these carpenter bees.
Their Global Warming theory is going to be proven to be a Fraud by none other than GOD himself!
A new study claims to have cracked predicting solar cycles - and says that between 2020 and 2030 solar cycles will cancel each other out.
This, they say, will lead to a phenomenon known as the ‘Maunder minimum’ - which has previously been known as a mini ice age when it hit between 1646 and 1715, even causing London’s River Thames to freeze over.
Let’s hope homo liberalus is one of them.
That’s a picture of the Townhall author trashing the UN report, not the UN report author making the ridiculous claims humans will be responsible for a million species extinction.
Excellent point.
The author lives in India
Those lunatics that truly believe the crap should help save the potentially extinct critters by committing suicide. Let’s face it, the left is already helping climate change via abortion. Just mix up a batch of Jonestown koolaid and celebrate their being Earth’s saviors.
Thank you...
How about we take Canadian Geese off the protected list? I can hardly cross the parking lot at our office here in Nashua some mornings because the amount of droppings.
Here in NH we need to increase the amount of turkey and deer harvest. Turkeys are everywhere. White tail deer are a nuisance. In addition, bobcats are showing up all around my area again. Probably because so many silly people have chickens in their backyards. Black bears continue to increase in population too. The only animal around here whos numbers are down are moose. The ticks are KILLING them.
Plus a moose once bit my sister.
Lastly, there continue to be reports of Mountain Lions here in NH. One just over the weekend in the Lake Sunapee area. Of course, NH Fish & Game says they do not exist. So, all is good.
Maybe some species are meant to go extinct. Like the dumb ones that do not adapt.
Did that happen at the end of the last Ice Age (or any previous one)? If so, kinda' sure we weren't responsible.
Also, something like 99% of all species that lived on this planet have gone extinct. Don't Libs believe in evolution or not?
Calling out the fraud of "climate change" only to climb on the anti-hunting band wagon isn't exactly "progress".
I use to pity our grounds cleanup crew on Mondays. I bet they wish they had a shotgun.
Scams usually only make Money disappear
Simple answer is no
Actually, the geese problem is not nearly as bad as it used to be. We have about a 1 acre pond here in the middle of our office park.
They installed a couple fountains to move the water around and discourage the landing/takeoff of the birds.
The biggest change was there were some ladies that worked at the bakery across the street. They used to feed the geese and ducks every afternoon the day old bread. My boss put a stop to that. We had so many one year(over 200) that they did not migrate because they were being fed.
At night they come out of the pond and sit over on our parking lot because the pavement is warm. Then they eat the grass up close to the building. They then make their deposits along the way. So, our parking lot turns into a minefield.
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