Andy Revkin over at the New York Times blogged today about biodiversity in honor of the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth. He talks about a presentation from Boris Worm, a marine biologist at Dalhousie University, during a national symposium on “managing the living world two centuries after Darwin.”
During the presentation, Dr. Worm:
… showed slides illustrating the extraordinary depletion of some of the species Darwin marveled at, including white-tipped sharks. “He wrote of ‘the large number of sharks struggling with fishermen for their catch,” Dr. Worm recounted. Now the sharks are the catch, with many populations utterly crashing.
In considering the overall challenge of conserving biological diversity on a crowding planet, he concluded, at the very least humans should “at least stop doing the really dumb things.”
And Revkin asks: “Do we need a new ethics to conserve biology on a crowding planet?”
It’s a timely question. Next year will be the United Nations International Year of Biodiversity. Leading up to and during this year, conservationists around the world will work to create that new ethic by demonstrating the vital role that biodiversity plays in maintaining our economies and livelihoods.
It’s a tall order and a long road. It will require bridging across “party lines” and convincing industry, governments and individuals to “at least stop doing the really dumb things.”
So, what are those things?
(Image: Oceanic whitetip shark. Credit: OldakQuill under a Creative Commons license.)
Tags: Andrew Revkin, biodiversity, Chrissy Schwinn, Dot Earth, shark
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Dumb things to stop doing?
I’d start by banning plastic bags because they end up in the throats and stomachs of wildlife. Choose fish that are sustainably caught. Develop international regulations to stop unsustainable harvesting of sealife. Stop war and divert troops to act as national or UN designated patrols to police the waters.
Stop urban sprawl. Stop clearcutting our forests. Stop the use of pesticides. Support urban density, forest stewardship and sustainable farms and the planting of indigenous species.
Stop ignoring the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and work together to reduce our carbon emissions and develop sustainable societies.
Stop thinking that we rule the planet. We don’t. Mother Nature is going to kick our collective butt if we stop doing dumb things.
I actually do think that we need new ethics for conservation because sadly, there isn’t mainstream ethics in caring for our planet now.
The majority of people and corporations and governments really don’t care about protecting the environment and they won’t until it starts to affect their bottom line.
So yes, if we need ethics laws or something similar to keep people from doing greedy and/or stupid things, then we need to do it.
I think the dumbest thing we need to stop doing is using fossil fuels when we already have solar and wind technologies.
Oh and another thing…how can we stop dumb people in the media from convincing the public that there’s still a debate about global warming?