MASS EXTINCTION OF SPECIES Before you fret about the “mass extinction” that is supposedly underway because of evil humanity, consider a couple statistics. There are least 1 million species on earth. In the past 500 years, the number of species that are confirmed to have gone extinct is less than 1,000. While there have surely been other extinctions we don’t know about, the total pales next to the mass extinctions that wiped out species in the past. Yes, some populations have declined due to loss of habitat, but that problem is easing now that the global trend in deforestation has reversed. As farmers produce more food on less land, and as ruralites move to cities, the amount of forestland in the world has been growing. So, by the way, has the population of polar bears, as well as other species that are enjoying new protections from hunters and new wildlife refuges. We’re perfectly capable of ensuring the survival of animals – and we may soon be capable of bringing back extinct animals, like the mammoths that scientists are currently trying to create from their DNA. Howmuch to worry: There’s not going to be a mass extinction, but some animals will need help in dealing with changing conditions. What to do about it: Identify the animals that need protection – and that are worth protecting.
CLIMATE CHANGE Global warming and rising sea levels are genuine threats, but remember that the climate apocalypse is being promoted by many of the same doomsayers who warned of overpopulation, the energy crisis, and nuclear winter as a way of augmenting their pocketbooks and political power. And keep the threat in perspective. Even the worst-case scenarios (which have been looking less likely as the climate models are refined) pale next to the challenges that humans have already overcome without any of the technology we have today – or the more advanced technology that will be available later this century. The Malthusian prophets of the 19th and 20th centuries, while woefully underestimating human ingenuity, did at least identify genuine dangers to civilization: We can’t survive if we run out of food or energy. But we can certainly adapt to changes in temperature and sea level. Humans have been doing it for hundreds of thousands of years, through ice ages and warm periods, in ecosystems ranging from tropical rainforests to the Arctic tundra. Farmers and burghers in the Low Countries have been holding back the sea – and expanding their fields and cities – for more than 1,500 years. In the past two centuries,
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November 2018
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