LOosing biodiversity!!.. over 40,000 species at risk...biologist say (not me)

Gorillas, China's baiji dolphin and Pacific corals have joined the list of species hurtling to oblivion as global biodiversity exerts warn of a fast-track 'global extinction crisis'.In an update of its Red List of biodiversity, the Swiss-based World Conservation Union (IUCN) says it has identified 41,415 species at threat.Of this, 16,306 species -or 39% of the total - are in danger of extinction, 188 more than last year.The Red List, one of the most authoritative markers of biodiversity, is compiled by conservationists, who apply strict criteria to evaluate sightings of the species and the state of its habitat.One in four mammals, one in eight birds, a third of amphibians and 70% of the world's assess plants are in jeopardy, the IUCN says.The new Red List, unveiled in Paris this week, places the spotlight on several species.The Yangtze river dolphin, or baiji (Lipotes vexillifer) has been hit by pollution, fishing, river traffic and habitat destruction. A long search for the mammal last November and December proved fruitless, causing it be listed as critically endangered (possibly extinct). Corals, which have been added to the Red List for the first time, include 10 species from the Galápagos Islands. Other Galápagos species added to the Red List include 74 species of kelp. A total of 723 species of turtles, snakes and other North American and Mexican reptiles have been added to the Red List. At-risk plants include the woolly-stalked begonia from Malaysia and the wild apricot from central Asia. Australia, with Mexico, China and Brazil, are home to what the report says are particularly large numbers of threatened species.According to the list, the total number of threatened species dropped by 16 from 639 in 2006 to 623 this year, while those species considered to be near threatened fell by four to 259!!!

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41,415 SPECIES AT RISK!!!! You have heard a lot of strange and fatal things in the last 60 years, that maybe for some of you these numbers only means just that: numbers. So I don’t know what is sadder: the fact that we are loosing more than 40,000 different types of living, or the fact that we don’t even care about it. We are worrying more about things that will not last for more than 100 hundred years, such as power and money, and we are just turning back for things that have survived in this planet for more than one million years! Sometimes we think we are “owners” of the planet, “owners” of all that lives there, “owners” of the 41,415 species at risk, but let me tell you that THEY ARRIVED FIRST. We just came, and modified their world, the home where they were peaceable living! And now, we believe we are owners of the planet. Please! Any animal is going to kill for pleasure, but human does, and I am sure that if some day we need their help, if our race would be in extinction some day, as their species are, they would not doubt in helping us, in helping the other type of living that shares home with them… but that’s not the case, because as human livings, as the only “rational” and superior animal, as we call ourselves, we have the responsibility of take care of the other living creatures, but look what we have done to the earth that god, or whoever u want, gave us… 16, 306 DIFFERENT SPECIES are in danger of extinction… After some years, we will be only able to see the biodiversity, the richness of the world, in museums and photos, because of course, humankind is used to see “biodiversity” just as an entertainment… well is your decision.It has been your decision since you became part of this world. So, you know if keep walking, or open your eyes!

kisses,
((i miss u guys! hoping 2 see u soon!))

fuente: http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/2030066.htm