News analysis: Quarter of mammals faced with extinction

By Steve Connor, Science Editor

21 May 2002

Almost a quarter of the world's mammals face extinction within 30 years, a United Nations study on the state of the global environment will announce tomorrow.

Scientists who contributed to the report have identified 11,046 species of plants and animals that are endangered. These include 1,130 mammals – 24 per cent of the total – and 12 per cent, or 1,183 species of birds.

The list of the critically endangered ranges from the well-publicised, such as the black rhino and Siberian tiger, to the less well known, such as the Amur leopard of Asia, the short-tailed chinchilla of South America and the Philippine eagle.

Human activities, notably the destruction of habitats and the introduction of alien species from one part of the world into another, are identified as the main cause of this loss in "biodiversity".


See [url]http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=297235[/url]  for the rest of this trash

Aviator  [img]www.milpubs.com/aviator.gif[/img]

I happen to agree; I mean those nukes are gonna kill sump'tin right??? [}:D]

Every single living creature is faced with extinction, either today, tommorow or in the future, it is part of the natural process of things.  Why get worked up over it?

one day, the entire surviving mammalian gene pool will be humans, dogs, cats, squirrels and rats, and someone here will want to bbq the cats.