News
Save a Species, Save a Life
August 24th, 2010
Care2
By Ethan Zohn
The world of professional soccer certainly has its share of stars — players who’ve elevated themselves to hero status with an incredible save or game-winning goal. But as anyone who’s ever played soccer will tell you, this beautiful game truly is a team sport.
In fact, the lessons I learned as a player and coach on the soccer field proved invaluable both as a competitor in “Survivor: Africa” and in my later struggle with cancer. Yet while a reality show competition and a battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma may not seem to have much in common at first glance, I was able to survive both due to an invaluable assist from nature.
According to an ever growing body of research, however, the last remnants of the world’s natural areas are quickly disappearing. And I’m now speaking out in an effort to get others to join me in the effort to save these last wild areas.
It all started on Survivor: Africa. I’m alive today due to a drug derived from the rosy periwinkle, a rare African flower found on the island of Madagascar. Yet in 2002, while competing in “Survivor: Africa,” this delicate pink flower was the farthest thing from my mind.
Global Conservation Act Introduced in U.S. Senate
June 21st, 2010
Bi-partisan bill will advance global conservation polices that protect the economy, national security and public health
WASHINGTON (June 18, 2010) – Senators from both parties yesterday introduced the Global Conservation Act of 2010 S. 3508 that would, for the first time, place the strategic and diplomatic resources of the U.S. government behind efforts to address extinction and natural resource depletion worldwide. Companion legislation (H.R. 4959) was introduced on March 26 in the U.S. House of Representatives.
- Protect millions of square miles of land and sea,
- Address illegal and unregulated fishing around the world,
- Safeguard the natural sources of fresh water to several major population centers around the world,
- Stop the worst wildlife trafficking operations, and
- Stabilize environmental destruction trends in areas vulnerable to conflict and instability.
The bill identifies a coordinator in the executive branch to ensure action and encourages the administration to secure additional funding and support for a global conservation strategy from other countries—including European nations, Japan, China, and India.”Thanks to the work of Senators Udall and Brownback, this landmark bill represents a major step forward in efforts to address worldwide resource destruction and species loss,” said Wise. “The legislation lays out a common-sense strategy that will help protect the world’s most ecologically and economically important wilderness and marine areas and promote global security.”Healthy terrestrial and marine ecosystems are critical to food security and disaster prevention. An analysis by David Pimentel at Cornell University concludes that wild species such as birds and insects provide US$100 billion worth of pest control services to world agriculture every year. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, healthy coral reefs reduce the impact of large storms on coastal populations, a protective function valued at US$9 billion a year.
The destruction of natural areas can come at a tremendous cost. Research by the World Resources Institute has found that medicines derived from natural sources, including 10 of the world’s 25 top-selling drugs, have a market value of US$75-$150 billion per year. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, current extinction rates could eliminate at least one prescription drug from entering the market every two years.
“Fields, trees, streams, and wildlife are essential for rich and poor countries alike,” according to Kenneth Arrow, Professor of Economics Emeritus, Stanford University and Nobel Laureate in Economics. “Wealthy societies depend on clean water, recreation, and storm and flood control. And the poorest communities in the world rely on nature for their livelihoods and sometimes their very survival.”
The Alliance for Global Conservation—a coalition of some of the world’s major conservation organizations including Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, the Pew Environment Group, Wildlife Conservation Society and the World Wildlife Fund—is working to prevent the destruction of the world’s remaining natural ecosystems for the species and human communities that depend on them.
Don Cheadle Working Toward American Eco-Policy Reform
June 1st, 2010
Ecorazzi
by Elizah Leigh
On the heels of his efforts just one year ago to inspire global policy makers to make positive changes on behalf of the environment during the Copenhagen Climate Conference of 2009, Cheadle is now attempting to propel America to the ‘forefront of the environmental movement’ by drawing attention to the latest eco-bill making the rounds.
The aptly named Global Conservation Act of 2010 (H.R. 4959) – which “places the strategic and diplomatic resources of the U.S. government behind efforts to address extinction and natural resource depletion worldwide” – calls for preventing species extinction, reducing billions of tons of carbon emissions, sustainably developing sea and land while conserving when at all possible, protecting freshwater supplies and applying $1.1 trillion in yearly disaster mitigation and eco-protection services.
The Role Of Ambassador
May 24th, 2010
National Journal
by Mike Magner
In the new movie “Iron Man 2,” Don Cheadle plays James (Rhodey) Rhodes, a tough military officer who is one of the superhero’s closest confidants and who becomes an armor- clad hero himself known as the War Machine. In real life, Cheadle is a polite and mild-mannered advocate for preserving the global environment, a role he believes fits perfectly with his ongoing campaign against genocide in Africa.
The 45-year-old, who has played everything from drug-addicted Washington disc jockey Petey Greene to Rat Packer Sammy Davis Jr. was on Capitol Hill last week to lobby for the Global Conservation Act, a bill introduced in March calling for an international strategy to protect natural resources and biodiversity.
Carnahan’s conservation push attracts celebrity attention
May 21st, 2010
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan’s push to preserve global habitats has caught the attention of Hollywood.
The St. Louis Democrat met this week with actor Don Cheadle, who is supporting a Carnahan bill aimed at preserving natural resources and protecting wildlife around the world.
Cheadle has grown as a global activist since appearing in “Hotel Rwanda,” the 2004 film set against the backdrop of genocide in Africa.
Cheadle’s Hill Sequel: Saving the Planet
May 20th, 2010
ROLL CALL
By Emily Heil and Elizabeth Brotherton
Actor Don Cheadle is back on Capitol Hill, this time advocating for the environment.
The “Iron Man 2” star is set to appear with scientist Jane Goodall on the Hill today for a lunch discussion supporting the Global Conservation Act, which funds the effort to fight extinction and natural resource depletion worldwide.
Read the full article (see 4th headline in “Heard on the Hill”)
Don Cheadle won’t use the F-word in D.C.
May 20th, 2010
THE HILL
By Christina Wilkie – 05/19/10 07:32 PM ET
The similarities between Hollywood and Capitol Hill are well-documented, and for at least one A-list actor, this makes it easy to come to D.C.
DON CHEADLE’S SECURITY SOLUTION
May 20th, 2010
Politico
By Kiki Ryan
Actor Don Cheadle sees protecting the environment as more than a case of preserving natural beauty: It’s integral to our national security.
“We need a War Machine to [protect us],” Cheadle told POLITICO on Tuesday, referring to the name of his character in “Iron Man 2.” Natural resources are “the next thing to fight and kill over,” he said.
Don Cheadle speaks on the Global Conservation Act
May 20th, 2010
Don Cheadle speaks at a briefing on the Global Conservation Act
Fortenberry Announces Global Conservation Act
May 20th, 2010
Omaha World-Herald
Congressman Jeff Fortenberry today joined world-renowned conservationist Jane Goodall and Academy Award-nominated actor Don Cheadle in unveiling the Global Conservation Act. Jane Goodall is a frequent visitor to Nebraska, and Don Cheadle grew up in Lincoln. Fortenberry recently introduced the measure with Congressman Russ Carnahan (MO).
Global Conservation Discussion with Don Cheadle and Dr. Jane Goodall
May 19th, 2010
Global Conservation Discussion
Contact:
Brandon MacGillis, 202-887-8830
Jamie Shor and Holly Cowan, (202) 339-9598
Lunch with Oscar nominated actor Don Cheadle and legendary scientist Dr. Jane Goodall to discuss protecting species and ecosystems around the world
WASHINGTON – On Thursday, May 20 at noon the Alliance for Global Conservation will host a lunch time briefing with actor Don Cheadle, Dr. Jane Goodall, Representative Russ Carnahan (D-MO) and Representative Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) about the rapid loss of species and ecosystems around the world. The focus of this lunch will be the recently introduced the Global Conservation Act of 2010, H.R. 4959, a bill that 
places the full strategic and diplomatic resources of the U.S. government behind efforts to address extinction and natural resource depletion worldwide.
The destruction of natural areas, like rainforests and coral reefs, comes at a tremendous cost. Research by the World Resources Institute has found that medicines derived from natural sources, including 10 of the world’s 25 top-selling drugs, have a market value of US$75-$150 billion per year.
WHO:
– Don Cheadle, Oscar-nominated Actor
– Dr. Jane Goodall, UN Messenger of Peace; Founder, Jane Goodall Institute
– The Honorable Russ Carnahan (D-MO)
– The Honorable Jeff Fortenberry (R- NE)
– Jeff Wise, director of the Alliance for Global Conservation and the Pew Environment Group’s Global Conservation Initiative, moderator
WHAT:
Briefing on the importance of protecting species and ecosystems around the world. Lunch will be served.
WHERE:
2200 Rayburn House Office Building
WHEN:
Thursday, May 20 at Noon
Don Cheadle’s Mission
May 19th, 2010
In the video below, Oscar nominated actor Don Cheadle discusses the recently introduced Global Conservation Act of 2010, H.R. 4959, a bill that places the full strategic and diplomatic resources of the U.S. government behind efforts to address extinction and natural resource depletion worldwide.
Reality TV winner beats cancer with African flower
May 14th, 2010
By Ethan Zohn, Special to CNN
- Winner of TV’s “Survivor: Africa” beat cancer with chemo from African plant
- Ethan Zohn’s brush with death spurred him to save natural habitats
- Zohn urges Congress to pass bill that outlines strategy to protect natural habitats
Editor’s note: Ethan Zohn is the winner of “Survivor: Africa” (2001), co-founder of Grassroot Soccer, a featured columnist for Tonic.com and a survivor of a rare form of cancer — CD 20+Hodgkins Lymphoma. He works with the Alliance for Global Conservation to raise awareness of the links between international conservation and treatments for deadly diseases.
(CNN) — When I won the reality show competition “Survivor: Africa” in 2001, I never dreamed that an obscure African flower would provide the drug that later helped me survive cancer. But that’s the way my life has unfolded.
One day I was battling opponents for a million dollars, the next I was battling lymphoma for my life.
I couldn’t have won either fight without having nature on my side. Now I’m working hard to protect natural areas that will provide the source of future drugs that could save millions of lives.
On the show we were expected to live off the land. I learned very early that survival would mean figuring out how to work with, rather than against, nature.
We used thorny acacia plants to keep predators away from our camp. We drank from the same watering hole as elephants and giraffes, learning the best times to drink and how to stay out of their way.
Nature was a good teacher. I won $1 million and the confidence that I could survive just about any challenge.
In 2009, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and it turned out that the confidence I gained on “Survivor” proved even more valuable than the million dollars. But not even the trials of the show could have prepared me for the greatest struggle of my life.
Chemotherapy drugs wracked my body for months. But as they worked I found some comfort when I learned that one of them was derived from an African flower, the rosy periwinkle.
The drug born of this flower, vincristine, was part of the regimen that saved my life. My cancer is now in remission and once again I owe my survival to working with nature.
My case is not an isolated one. It turns out that dozens of plants in nature manufacture anti-cancer agents as chemical defenses. Scientists figured this out years ago, and 80 percent of all anti-cancer drugs possess an active ingredient from the natural world.
This promise extends to other diseases as well, with half the new drugs created in the past 25 years derived from nature.
According to a recent study, natural drugs and related products are used to treat 87 percent of all known diseases, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes and HIV.
Yet this pharmaceutical pipeline is in danger.
Researchers unraveled the biochemistry of the snakeroot plant to improve the treatment of hypertension, but the plant is now threatened by deforestation in Indonesia.
Scientists derived a compound for treating severe chronic pain from a cone snail found in Pacific coral reefs, though its habitat is now threatened by destructive fishing practices and marine pollution.
The first antiviral medication approved for the treatment of HIV/AIDS came from a marine sponge, yet marine habitats around the world are threatened by pollution, overfishing and climate change.
Given the accelerating destruction of rainforests, reefs and other natural habitats around the world, we must take action today — as there’s no telling how many useful undiscovered natural compounds we could lose for tomorrow.
Right now, there’s a bipartisan bill in Congress, the Global Conservation Act of 2010, that seeks to address extinction and natural resource depletion worldwide by laying out a strategy for helping other countries protect millions of square miles of natural habitat.
President Obama must put his weight behind this bill and the Congress must pass it soon.
According to the World Conservation Union, more than 16,000 species, plant and animal alike, are in danger of extinction, largely because of human activities.
Indeed, scientists warn that two-thirds of the planet’s 10 million species could face extinction by the end of the century. Time is not on our side.
I won “Survivor: Africa,” and I’ve won my battle against cancer. But in each case, I didn’t do it alone. I had the most unlikely of partners: a small watering hole and, later, a flower.
I don’t know what I’ll need from nature next or where the newest nature-based medicines will come from, but I’m not willing to risk losing any of them.
The rosy periwinkle saved my life. Who knows what could save yours?
Third of all plants and animals face extinction
May 9th, 2010
The Sunday Times
May 9, 2010
ANIMAL and plant species are being killed off faster than ever before as human populations surge and people consume more, a United Nations report is expected to say this week. It will warn that the expansion of countries such as China, India and Brazil is adding hugely to the environmental threats already generated by developed western nations, and that a third of species could face extinction this century.
Read the full story at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article7120676.ece.
Bucksport Man Lobbies for Conservation Bill
May 7th, 2010
The Ellsworth American
Take a second look in your medicine cabinet. There could be a jungle in there.
Half of all drugs developed in the past quarter-century have an active ingredient derived from nature, according to statistics provided by the Alliance for Global Conservation.
Yet the habitats where these ingredients are discovered are rapidly disappearing. Scientists estimate habitat destruction and extinction cause one major new drug to be lost every two years.
The figures lend a pragmatic twist to environmentalism.
Cancer survivor promotes the planet
May 6th, 2010
Round Rock woman urges feds to protect Earth’s environment
Round Rock Leader
On April 19, Round Rock resident Amy Huff joined 15 other cancer survivors and survivors of chronic diseases in Washington, D.C. to bring attention to the Global Conservation Act of 2010.
For three days, group members met with their respective states’ representatives to garner support for the bill. Huff was among the group because of her friendship with Angela Patterson, a fellow cancer survivor who blogged about her journey through cancer and treatments. It was Patterson’s blog that caught the attention of the Pew Charitable Trust, a non-profit organization based out of Washington, D.C. that hosted the group while they were there.
Huff was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, when she was pregnant.
On Earth Day, salute the plants that make medicines possible
April 22nd, 2010
St. Petersburg Times
By Irene Maher, Times staff writer
In Print: Thursday, April 22, 2010
This week supporters of the Global Conservation Act of 2010 are in Washington to ask Congress to protect what they see as nature’s drug development pipeline. Among them is 48-year-old Debbie Trujillo of Tampa, a real estate agent and breast cancer survivor who was treated with Taxol and today has been cancer-free for five years. “This is urgent,” she says. “It takes years to find these plants, test them and get the drugs to patients. If there’s a rain forest on the other side of the world that could save a life, we have to preserve it now.” Read the full article
Pew and Academy of Natural Sciences Highlight Protecting Species and Ecosystems
April 13th, 2010
The Philadelphia Examiner
The rapid loss of species and ecosystems around the world is affecting our country’s health, economy and national security according to environmental experts who spoke today at a public forum co-hosted by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Academy of Natural Sciences.
“There is no more important issue for humanity than conserving the biological infrastructure of the planet,” said Dr. Thomas E. Lovejoy, a George Mason University professor and the biodiversity chair at the Heinz Center for Science, Economics and the Environment.
Preventing the next big bailout – of nature
March 22nd, 2010
The Miami Herald
By John S. Adams
March 15, 2010
There’s an old saying that there are three kinds of bankers: the ones who can count and the ones who can’t. And, in fact, during the financial crisis we found that bad accounting and short-sighted thinking created a lot of trouble.
While the continuing government inquiry and proposed financial reforms could encourage more forward thinking and fewer government bailouts, poor accounting and planning extend far beyond the banking system. Unless we apply some of the lessons learned in the financial crisis, we could end up bailing ourselves out of something even costlier – a crisis in our natural world.
Although the field of finance often ignores the fact, all of modern economics depends upon nature. It is impossible for any nation to maintain a healthy economic base without access to clean water, arable soil and the other multitude of products and services provided by the environment. However, we’re facing a historic crisis in the world’s natural systems.
Sixty countries have lost virtually all of their forest cover. More than three-quarters of the world’s fish stocks, providing food for 2 billion people, are in steep decline. Nearly one-third of the globe’s cropland has been abandoned in the last 40 years due to erosion. And the world has lost half its wetlands and one-third of its coral reefs.
This all comes with a hefty price tag. When watersheds no longer provide freshwater, forests no longer help prevent droughts and floods, and oceans no longer support healthy fish stocks, governments will be called upon to provide these goods and services in other – usually much more expensive – ways.
For instance, building water purification systems is far more costly than conserving natural watersheds. Rebuilding cities is enormously expensive compared to the cost of conserving forests and reefs that protect against floods and storms.
Such expenditures would be nothing more than another government bailout for poor planning and accounting. And if we don’t change course, the cost of paying for damaged natural systems could dwarf the bank bailouts of the last 18 months.
A recent study conducted by a Deutsche Bank economist added up the value of all the services performed by forests globally. After considering the economic value of providing clean water, preventing floods and absorbing carbon dioxide, the study concluded that the global economy is suffering a loss of over $2 trillion a year from deforestation alone.
Just as we are raising the amount that banks, insurers and mortgage holders must keep in reserve to balance out losses, we must also balance out the losses to nature. A recent UBS report estimated that businesses and governments will invest – mostly in developing countries – an average of $500 billion per year during the next 20 years on natural resource extraction activities like oil drilling and mining. Since we are spending trillions to exploit such resources to achieve economic growth, we need to make sure the wealthy nations of the world are spending what’s necessary to maintain the world’s natural systems.
Yet expenditures on extracting natural resources globally now dwarf spending on conserving nature by over 100 to 1. This is a stunning imbalance and current international conservation funding fails to offset the environmental effects of modern growth and development. Just as Washington is leading the call for reforms in the global banking system, President Obama and the Congress should rally other world governments behind an effort to strengthen global conservation programs.
We must protect the ecosystems that provide the trillions of dollars worth of goods and services to humanity each year before they crash like our banking system did. As the largest consumer of natural resources, the United States can serve as an example to the rest of the world by increasing our commitment to global conservation programs from just a few hundred million dollars a year to at least a billion annually – and by asking other nations to join us in this effort. This is a difficult call to action in a difficult economic environment.
But if the financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we can no longer wait for problems to ripen into crises before acting. Bailouts always cost far more than taking preventive action. It’s time to start accounting for nature.
ABOUT THE WRITER
John S. Adams is senior vice president of investments for UBS Financial Services. Readers may write to him at UBS Financial Services, 925 Fourth Avenue, Suite 2000, Seattle, Wash. 98104; e-mail: john.s.adams@ubs.com
Environmental Economics: A new United Nations study puts dollar signs on the services nature provides.
November 13th, 2009
By Daniel Stone
“…the net return from conservation is higher when you protect these resources than when you exploit them economically,” says Jeff Wise, director the Alliance for Global Conservation, a consortium of U.S. conservation groups.
Read the full article here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/222701
Reef troubles warn of disaster
November 4th, 2009
Chicago Tribune
By JEFF WISE
Today, many of our planet’s natural areas are seriously threatened by human incursion, overexploitation and global warming: Less than a fifth of the world’s original forest cover remains in unfragmented tracts, while just one-third of coastal mangroves survive to protect coastlines from storms and erosion. But none of these are declining as rapidly as coral reefs. By revealing what could be in store for other natural systems, reefs resemble the proverbial canary in a coal mine.
Jacques Cousteau first brought the wonders of these underwater marine vistas to millions around the globe, just over 50 years ago. In award-winning documentaries like “Silent World,” he captured in living Technicolor the awesome beauty of the Earth’s oldest and largest living structures.
Providing a safe harbor where more than a quarter of all marine life can feed, spawn and raise their young, reefs’ ecological diversity rivals that of the world’s lushest rainforests. Unlike the forests, however, the relative remoteness of many reefs seemed to promise a small degree of protection for these fragile ecosystems. What a difference 50 years makes. The combination of destructive fishing practices and marine pollution hits reefs hard. A 2006 U.N. report found that close to one-third of corals are already destroyed or damaged, a figure that could double by 2030. And as reefs are extremely sensitive to changes in both the temperature and acidity of seawater, climate change will only make this situation worse.
Indeed, the former chief scientist of the Australian Institute of Marine Science warned in a recent presentation to the Royal Society of London that, “There is no hope of reefs surviving to even mid-century in any form that we now recognize and when, they go, they will take with them about one-third of the world’s marine biodiversity.” Like the rapidly shrinking Arctic ice cap, recent research has accelerated estimates on the risk to corals by decades, if not centuries.
Healthy ecosystems are important for our economies and our survival.
Reefs sustain many commercial fisheries and reduce the impact of large storms on coastal populations, saving communities more than $9 billion every year. New drugs developed from natural sources, both above and below the waves, are used to treat everything from heart disease to leukemia. In fact, the renowned AIDS treatment drug AZT is based on chemicals discovered in a Caribbean reef sponge. Researchers also recently discovered a compound in a species of coral near Taiwan that could help patients with severe nerve damage.
To give reefs and other ecosystems a chance, it’s crucial that world leaders embark upon a combined effort to protect earth’s remaining natural areas, beyond even international attempts to control global warming emissions.
To lead the rest of the world toward an effective conservation strategy the United States must first develop one itself. Right now, no less than six U.S. agencies are involved in helping other countries conserve their natural resources. Yet various initiatives often lack coordination, and the federal government doesn’t have any overarching policy or common metrics to determine whether or not these disparate efforts add up to real progress.
To help address this problem, the president should direct his advisers to develop a coordinated global conservation strategy for all federal agencies. At home this would allow the White House to assess the effectiveness of U.S. programs that are implemented overseas, while abroad the United States could speak with more authority in calling for a new plan to protect the Earth’s last vestiges of nature. It’s tragic that so many of the vibrant ecosystems Jacques Cousteau documented a few short decades ago have become desolate seascapes.
Scientists estimate we have only a decade to boost conservation efforts, or we face irreversible losses. To meet this challenge, the president must work together with his counterparts around the globe soon.
We have a window of opportunity to save much of what’s left, but that window is quickly closing.
Jeff Wise directs The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Global Conservation Initiative.
Save the frogs — and perhaps ourselves
September 1st, 2009
BALTIMORE SUN
By Karen Lips
Amphibians are going extinct around the globe. As a scientist specializing in frogs, I have watched dozens of species of these creatures die out. The extinction of frogs and salamanders might seem unimportant, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. These animals regulate their local ecosystems, consume and control populations of mosquitoes and other insects that spread disease, and potentially point the way to new drugs for fighting diseases such as cancer and HIV- AIDS. Their fate is inexorably linked to our own.
The biggest danger to most species today is habitat loss. But a new threat, specific to amphibians, has spread across the globe. From the Panamanian jungles to the Appalachian Mountains, entire species of frogs and salamanders are disappearing at an alarming rate. But it’s not too late to implement global conservation policies that could mean the difference between survival and extinction.
This epidemic is due to a disease called chytridiomycosis, caused by a microscopic fungus that lives in water and moist soil. Animals that live primarily in cool, moist environments are the perfect target for the deadly pathogen.
This disease does not respect boundaries between countries or those that identify protected areas. We have already officially lost more than 120 species, but the real number is likely much higher, as lack of research funding limits the necessary investigations required to officially declare a species extinct or to even identify many of those that can be distinguished only through genetic analyses.
Such extinctions can devastate nature’s ecosystems, but humans will feel the loss too. Biomedical researchers have relied on animals to help understand and treat disease in humans for generations. Indeed, two of my colleagues recently found some chemicals that are naturally produced in the skin of various frog species that can kill the HIV virus, certain kinds of cancers and other microbial pathogens.
When species go extinct, our list of ingredients for products and pharmaceuticals shrinks, potentially erasing cures before they are discovered. And with one in three amphibians currently in danger of extinction, researchers are now locked into a high-stakes race with the clock.
U.S. policymakers should get serious about saving amphibians. Most of the world’s frogs live in developing countries, which lack the economic resources to protect their habitats and fight the spread of the fungus. Additional U.S. funding for labs already working on innovative potential cures would be a fabulous investment. It is also critical that the U.S. and other developed nations provide financial support to help protect frog habitats in the developing world. Rampant destruction of wetlands and tropical forests around the world could leave many frog species with nowhere to call home.
Beyond that, leaders in Washington should move to create a national strategy to address the overall global species extinction crisis. Currently, with more than six federal agencies involved in international conservation, we still lack any coordination or overarching strategy.
Meanwhile, all over the world, we are losing our rich diversity of plant and animal species at an unprecedented rate. The services provided by amphibians go far beyond their aesthetic appeal. Frogs and salamanders, like the other wild inhabitants of our planet, make the world a better place.
Scientists have concluded we have only a decade to substantially scale up conservation efforts to address this extinction crisis, or face irreversible losses. While time is short, there is still an opportunity to preserve the bounty of nature we have remaining – a task that’s critical not only for nature’s sake, but our own.
Karen Lips is an associate professor of biology and director of the Program in Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her e-mail is klips@umd.edu.
The Sixth Extinction
May 25th, 2009
The New Yorker
Abstract:
A reporter at large about the sixth mass extinction. Describes how graduate student Karen Lips observed the mysterious disappearance of large numbers of local golden frogs, in the nineteen-nineties, at several locations in Panama and Costa Rica. Whatever was killing Lips’s frogs moved east, like a wave, across Panama. Of the many species that have existed on earth, more than ninety-nine per cent have disappeared. Yet extinction has been a much contested concept. Throughout the eighteenth century, the prevailing view was that species were fixed. Charles Darwin believed extinction happened only slowly, but he was wrong. Over the past half billion years, there have been at least twenty mass extinctions. Five of these—the so-called Big Five—were so devastating that they’re usually put in their own category. The fifth, the end-Cretaceous event, which occurred sixty-five million years ago, exterminated not just the dinosaurs but seventy-five per cent of all species on earth. Once a mass extinction occurs, it takes millions of years for life to recover, and when it does it’s generally with a new cast of characters.
Read the full story (subscription required)
‘Survivor: Planet’ We’re all competing
February 26th, 2009
ROME (GA) NEWS-TRIBUNE
BY ETHAN ZOHN and JENNA MORASCA
Recently, millions of Americans tuned in to witness the crowning of the winner of Survivor: Gabon– Earth’s last Eden. Over the course of 12 weeks the contestants dealt with all the challenges that nature, the producers and their fellow competitors could throw at them — an experience we both know all too well. At risk was the ultimate title of ”Sole Survivor,” a $1 million prize and a host of life-changing opportunities that the winner can only scarcely imagine.
Yet amid the attention surrounding the close of this season’s Survivor, it’s important the public also be aware of a very different survival struggle going on today.
According to the World Conservation Union, more than 16,000 species, plants and animal alike, are in danger of extinction, largely because of human activities. If we don’t stop this onslaught on nature, scientists warn that two-thirds of the planet’s 10 million species could face extinction by the end of the century — a situation that puts the term ”being voted off the island” in a whole new light. While the picture may look gloomy, however, there are steps leaders in Washington can take to create real-life ”immunity idols” for species — tools the international community could use in this struggle.
Participating in Survivor was an incredible experience. Living off the land, waking up with lions and giraffes or toucans and pink dolphins in your backyard — it gives you a very different perspective on nature. It showed us how fragile life can be. Gabon is, indeed, one of the Earth’s ”last Edens” because modern society has destroyed all but a few remnants of wild nature. According to the United Nations, over the last 300 years global forest area has shrunk by almost half. Coral reefs in the Caribbean have been reduced by roughly 80 percent over the last 30 years. And more than 75 percent of the world’s marine fish have been fished to the brink of extinction.
In the Amazon, according to Brazilian officials, roughly 290 square miles of forest was destroyed in August alone, more than double the amount from last year. And if you think this won’t impact Americans, think again.
Roughly 20 percent of the planet’s oxygen is produced by the Amazon rainforest. But perhaps more important is its treasure trove of plants.
Just one square kilometer of the Amazon contains over 75,000 types of trees. And while extinction of an obscure tree might not seem important, native plant species provide a vital tool in combating diseases, with half of the most prescribed medicines in the United States derived from natural compounds. The drug vincristine, for example, from an obscure flower in Madagascar, is one of the most effective current treatments for childhood leukemia.
Forests also hold water, preventing both catastrophic floods and droughts, while healthy coral reefs reduce the impact of large storms on coastal populations. Small investments in conservation can translate into huge savings in lives and property. But we needn’t sit back and passively and watch this crisis unfold like a drama on TV. We still have a chance to make a difference.
In conjunction with efforts to address the climate crisis, leaders in Washington over the next two years should take steps to ensure that our nation has a plan to address this global species extinction crisis. An excellent first step would be adopting a national global conservation strategy and then planning for how all U.S. government agencies involved in conservation abroad could advance that goal. The Obama administration should also start a global dialogue on how the international community can provide the resources to protect the world’s most ecologically and economically important species-rich land and marine areas. Together, these tools could literally make the difference between life and death for what’s left of the natural world and those species on the brink of survival.
To win at Survivor you not only have to learn how to outwit, outlast and outplay your opponents, but how to live in balance with the game’s most influential player — Mother Nature. If we’re all going to win this ultimate survival challenge we have to put on our game faces now. TV shouldn’t be the only place where future generations can experience the wonders of Africa, the Amazon or any of our planet’s remaining Edens.
Ethan Zohn is the winner of Survivor: Africa; Jenna Morasca is the winner of Survivor: Amazon.
