The Legislation of Extinction

National Geographic works tirelessly to expose the issues plaguing the world through beautiful cinematography, stunning photographs, and captivating articles. One project, lead by photographer Joel Sartore, is known as the Photo Ark. The goal of this initiative is to photographically catalogue every species of animal located in sanctuaries and zoos, and hopefully the world. What Sartore hopes this project will lead to is an increased awareness of endangered or threatened species (read about the Photo Ark here).

 

There has been an ever-growing concern about the fates of endangered species. In today’s society especially, there is increased industrialization, deforestation, and destruction of environment in the hunt of depleting nonrenewable resources (see previous post for an example of the latter). There are many facts and figures thrown around concerning the actual rate of extinction of species. It is impossible to know this rate definitively, considering scientists are constantly discovering new animal species, therefor we do not know the total number of species currently existing. However, we are able to make educated guesses as to how quickly species are dying off. Experts say, accounting for undiscovered species, there can range anywhere from 2 million to 100 million unique animal species total on earth. They also believe that between 0.01 and 0.1 percent of the earth’s species disappear year (check those facts here). This means, in a best case scenario (100 million species, 0.01 percent loss), 10,000 species go extinct each year, reaching total extinction in roughly 10,000 years. In the worst case (2 million species, 0.1 percent loss), 2,000 species go extinct each year, reaching total extinction in only 1,000 years.

There is, and has been, legislation put into place designed to combat the loss of endangered animals in the United States. Dating as far back as the early 1900s, during Teddy Roosevelt’s administration, species have been protected as long as they were within national wildlife refugees. It was not until 1969 when the Endangered Species Conservation Act made the importation of both endangered and threatened animals illegal. This law was greatly strengthened some years later, when the Endangered Species Act of 1973 was approved. In this new and improved act, all endangered and threatened species were protected by law, as well as the ecosystems that their livelihoods depend on (read up on these acts here). This was a massive step towards animal conservation in the United States; protecting wildlife was now able to be enforced by law. Since then, there have ben countless amendments to these acts, a majority of which have only strengthened the cause for protected endangered species.

Everyone is well aware that, still, industrialization is ruining the livelihoods of countless animals. Across Africa and South America, deforestation has run rampant. Nearly every country within these continents has lost over 1,000 hectares of forest since 1990. America, actually, is one of the countries that has actually seen an. improvement in the number of hectares of forest within their borders, rising from 298,000 to 303,000 hectares (check out the big list of countries and their deforestation rates here). Other factors, like toxic mine runoff, garbage dumping into oceans, and introducing invasive species into specific ecosystems, can all threaten the sustainability of any given animal.

Now, those deforestation stats probably don’t mean much to you – they’re just numbers that were once bigger and are now smaller. So, to put into perspective exactly what happens when those numbers decrease, here are some species that went extinct just this past year:

 

 

Obviously, there is an opposing side to this argument, and as is typical with environmental issues, it deals with economic benefit. Poaching, although illegal, is one reason many animals are threatened (it is the main cause of the extinction of the fishing cat). The government is responsible for rolling back many environmental policies that can pose immediate threats to wildlife. Some of these new policies include allowing coal mining companies to dump debris in local streams, rejecting a ban on potentially harmful insecticide, and rejecting a ban on hunting predators located in Alaskan wildlife refugees (see other policies overturned here).

Protected animals and there environments is a very complex issue with many components (should the hunting of threatened animals be allowed if it is an integral part of a people’s culture? Does trophy hunting help or harm the animals involved? Where should waste be dumped from, say, mines and power plants as to not harm any ecosystem?). It is true, however, that at this rate, and a potentially increasing one, the number of species on earth will be dropping like flies. This might seem inconsequential to us; so what if some lizard I never knew existed in the first place ceases to exist? The fall of these species can be viewed as a trend. When species that you do care about become endangered (take bees, for example, which are dying off faster than ever previously recorded) it might be too late to take proper action. Consider how what we do now affects the future of those that don’t have a voice, and what actions are reasonable and feasible to prevent the decay of our planet and its inhabitants.