Pollution eats up 3 species every hour

Times Of India , Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Correspondent : REUTERS
LONDON: Three species every hour are being scraped off from earth due to pollution, it has been revealed at world conference to save wildlife.

It was 65 years ago that dinosaurs were eradicated from the earth and since then, no rate of extinction has been observed as yet.

But now a shock report on the destruction of natural habitats has alarmed many by indicating that one in four mammals are on the endangered list, which includes orangutans, chimpanzees and elephants.

The United Nation's World Conservation Union reports that the list includes one in eight bird types, a third of amphibians and 70 per cent of plant life.

The reports have cautioned if there won't be any action taken for greenhouse gases and climate change, it could actually put food supplies in danger and "destroy the foundation of human life," reports The Sun .

In fact, much of harm has already been done with the destruction costs already hitting 1.8 billion pounds per year.

Officials attended the conference, at Bonn, Germany, from 191 countries, and they are planning to discuss ways of slowing the extinction rate.

However, according to German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, the world faced "a Herculean task".

While a UN summit in 2002 had already set a target for slowing extinction, but it is still lagging way behind schedule.

Scientists in Australia have already "reactivated" DNA from an extinct species by using a Tasmanian tiger sample in mouse embryos.

 
SOURCE : Times Of India, Wednesday, 21 May 2008,
 


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