75, 75, 70, 50, 42, 40, 1/3. No, these numbers have nothing to do with “Lost”, the insanely popular mystery TV show of 2004. They do, however have everything to do with another kind of lost – something far more dramatic than even the best episode of “Lost” – species getting lost. I’m talking, of course, about Biodiversity.
Before you get out your dictionary, here’s a quick definition for you: The variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem. Seems rather important, doesn’t it?
Well, Let’s talk about these numbers.
75% of genetic diversity of agricultural crops has been lost.
75% of the world’s fisheries are fully or over exploited.
70% of the world’s known species risk becoming lost, or rather extinct, if global temperatures rise by more than 3.5ºC. Right now the temperature has increased just shy of 1ºC, which doesn’t seem much to worry about if it wasn’t for the frightening fact that 2/3 of this increase has happened since 1980. Scientists predict that the temperature will rise another 2.9 degrees globally during the 21st century in their lowest emission prediction scenario. For the nay-sayers out there, here’s a nice little graphic depicting Temperature anomalies from 1950-2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Enso-global-temp-anomalies.png
50% of the farmland bird populations in Europe have declined since 1980.
42% of all amphibian species are declining
40% of global bird species are declining.
1/3 (19%) of reef building corals around the world are threatened with extinction as the oceans continue to become more acidic.
Birds and amphibians aside, why should you care if coral reefs die out? Well, nearly half the fish the world eats make their homes around them. About 1 billion people across Asia alone depend on them for their food and livelihood. Scientists predict that hunger, poverty and political instability could be the result. I’ll throw in an extra number for you: 50% of coral reefs in the caribbean are already gone. Even the Great Barrier Reef in Australia is severely affected at this point. It’s a huge debate down under currently.
You may be wondering what we can do to prevent this from getting any worse and to protect our biodiversity on earth. Well, one way of helping the cause is by donating to, or volunteering for various organizations, such as WWF (wwf.panda.org), which is the most prominent conservation organization in the world.
One thing everyone reading this column should do is go to: act.earthday.org and sign the pledge of green, and keep good on your promise. Do something….do anything earth/environment related this April. There are many ways you can help out. Many of you are teachers…. teach something about the earth on that day to your students. Take your bike to get around instead of using a motorized vehicle, help to clean up the city, write a letter to your congressman, use natural cleaning alternatives, invent a new form of sustainable, clean energy… do whatever you can, and is within your power. Every little bit helps.
Although December 21st is one of the most important days for some superstitious people this year. April 22nd is another day that you should keep firmly imprinted in your memory. Do you know what happened on this day in history? Well, it’s Jack Nicholson’s birthday, and who doesn’t like Jack? More to the point though, It’s also the first time that people in America took to the streets to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive rallies and protests from one coast to the next in 1970. It was the start of the environmental movement. Since then, the movement has gone global and is now observed in many countries around the world…. including Japan. Because of this movement, there have been many advancements for environmental protection around the world. It was originally the idea of senator Gaylord Nelson, who, after witnessing the ravages of a severe oil spill in Santa Barbara, became inspired to do something about environmental pollution. While some people will probably argue against this loss of biodiversity being caused by human activity, I can assure you that these extinction events are about as natural as twinkies, red diet Kool Aid, and Spam. This is not natural, folks! Stand up and do something about the loss of biodiversity on earth before it’s too late. Remember the Passenger Pidgeon? How about the Baji River Dolphin? No? Well, they are all recently extinct animals. become involved now, to make sure the same doesn’t happen to Tigers, Polar Bears, Bluefin Tuna, or the Panda Bear, which are all on the endangered species list !(http://www.earthsendangered.com/list.asp)
You see, all it takes is one person with the notion of a great idea to make a change. That’s the beauty of ideas. Ideas can grow into actions. Actions can become movements and movements have the power to change the world. Please join us this earth day to try and make a positive change. Celebrate the environment, and make a positive change this year. Go here for more info about Earth Day: www.earthday.org
So, what about this, our city? Wondering what’s going down in April here? Nagoya also has some earth day activities planned in April (although on the 28th). You can find out more information (sorry, only in Japanese) at: http://earthday-nagoya.com/
Your mission this April (and always), should you choose to accept it, is to do start doing something earth/environment related. It’s not an impossible mission once you find the motivation to get started, but it’s a mission of utmost importance. Become a Radically Active Nagoyan! Now is your time to act!
