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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
American
Habitats on the Edge
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Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
http://forests.org/
3/15/98
OVERVIEW,
SOURCE & COMMENTARY by EE
The
long-term sustainability of the American economic model is
justifiably
questioned when the effects upon habitat and the ability
of
ecosystems to continue providing life-support functions are
considered. Economic growth based upon the liquidation
of ecological
systems
is illusory and ultimately degrading to quality, and the very
possibility,
of life. Following is an good synopsis
that provides
detail
regarding just how much has been lost in America, and is
threatened
worldwide, in order to fuel unsustainable material gains.
The
danger lies in this model's embrace by the rest of the World.
g.b.
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Title: Factoids: Habitat on the edge
Source: Environmental News Network
Status: Copyrighted 1998, contact source to reprint
Date: March 13, 1998
In the
past 200 years, the United States has lost 50 percent of its
wetlands,
90 percent of its northwestern old-growth forests, 99
percent
of its tallgrass prairie, and up to 490 species of native
plants
and animals.
Nine
square miles of rural land is turned over to development each day
in the
United States.
Experts
have predicted that 17,500 species will be lost to extinction
each
year. Some scientists forecast that total losses may reach one
million
by the year 2000.
Some
experts estimate that one species goes extinct each hour.
According
to the National Wildlife Federation, nearly two-thirds of
all large
mammal species are threatened or endangered in the lower 48
states,
along with 14 percent of all bird species, 12 percent of all
plant
species and 10 percent of all fish species.
Less
than 10 percent of all endangered and threatened species for
which
the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is responsible are improving;
nearly
40 percent are in decline. For endangered and threatened
species
found only on private property, ten species are in decline for
every
one species showing improvement.
Seventy-nine
percent of the top 150 pharmaceuticals prescribed in 1995
were
derived from natural sources.
Old-growth
forests, a hot campaign issue with Rainforest Action
Network,
are quickly dwindling; today less than 5 percent of the
United
States' ancient forests remain.
More
than two square miles of the oldest and largest trees are clear-
cut
each week in the Pacific Northwest.
Since
1982 the Forest Service has spent an average of $55 million a
year to
subsidize clear-cutting in the Tongass National Forest. Only
$550,000
annually has been returned to the U.S. Treasury in timber
receipts,
a return of less than 2 cents on the dollar.
Replacing
the carbon storage function of all tropical forests would
cost an
estimated $3.7 trillion -- equal to the gross national product
of
Japan.
Of 3.5
million miles of rivers in the United States, 600,000 miles (17
percent)
are dammed, causing enormous and permanent ecological damage.
In 1986
alone, 64 million gallons of toxic drilling waste were
discharged
directly onto the tundra by North Slope operations. The
Exxon
Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of oil.
Less
than 4 percent of the original U.S. wilderness remains. The
Arctic
refuge's coastal plain is virtually the last stretch of
arctic
coastline of Alaska not open for development. The Wilderness
Society
would like to keep it that way.
Less
than 450,000 acres of California's original 5 million acres
of
wetlands remain.
The
annual global income lost due to desertification is estimated to
be $42
billion.
Loss of
vital organic matter and soil nutrients to erosion costs U.S.
and
Canadian farmers more than $2 billion yearly in lost production.
According
to EarthAction International, throughout the world's dry
zones,
500,000 hectares of irrigated lands become desertified every
year
through salination and waterlogging -- roughly equal to the area
newly
irrigated every year.
The
U.N. Environment Programme estimates that the lives of 900 million
people
are at risk because their land is in danger of turning into
desert.
As much as a quarter of the Earth's land surface may be
threatened.
Of the
world's 5,200 million hectares of dryland used for agriculture,
69
percent is degraded or subject to desertification. In Africa, 73
percent
of all agriculturally used drylands are degraded; the figure
for
Asia is 70 percent.
Farmers
report that by incorporating conservation till methods, they
can
reduce soil erosion by up to 70 percent.
EPA
data documents that U.S. farmers applied a record 1.25 billion
pounds
of pesticides to crops in 1995 -- twice as much as was applied
30
years ago. Farmers paid $10.4 billion for the chemicals, including
toxins,
carcinogens, and chemicals believed to disrupt the human
hormone
system.
The use
of methyl bromide is increasing in California, according to
the
California Department of Pesticide Regulation. Seventeen million
pounds
of the toxic fumigant and ozone depleter were applied in 1994,
a 15
percent increase from 1993.
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This
document is a PHOTOCOPY for educational, personal and non-
commercial
use only. Recipients should seek
permission from the
source
for reprinting. All efforts are made to
provide accurate,
timely
pieces; though ultimate responsibility for verifying all
information
rests with the reader. Check out our
Gaia Forest
Conservation
Archives at URL= http://forests.org/
Networked
by Ecological Enterprises, gbarry@forests.org