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Habitat loss for the last two centuries has been huge for
mammals. But, hey, who gives a hoot about habitat? 2/3 of mammal species will
be gone by the end of this century, or sooner. That is a conservative estimate
from a speech given at the International Botanical Congress. Those guys are
botanists. What the heck do they know?
Peter Raven, President of the International Botanical
Congress at its 16th worldwide conference, August 2, 1999 announced: "We are
predicting the extinction of about two-thirds of all bird, mammal, butterfly
and plant species by the end of the next century, based on current
trends." In other words, we humans are causing a mass extinction of species
greater than the extinction that wiped out the
dinosaurs 65 million years ago. This is
a very big deal, folks - if loss of 2/3rds of these species doesn't qualify as
a major ecological collapse, we don't know what does. This should be
front-page, red banner headline news, but it's not. The UN and
every country around the world should be calling for emergency conferences,
but they're not.



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