Dear all: Finding new species should elicit rejoicing by all. However, biologists to date simply do not know how many species exist on Planet Earth.
According to the World Wildlife Fund: http://www.panda.org/about_our_earth/biodiversity/biodiversity/ Scientists estimate between 0.1% and 0.01% of species (~ 2 million identified, but perhaps as many as 100 million species exist on earth ) will become extinct each year. That is a loss of between 200-2000 of known species, or between 10,000-100,000 potential extinctions per year. The Evolution Library, at US Public Broadcasting Service http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/03/2/l_032_04.html states deforestation of tropical forests may zap ~27,000 species per year to extinction. I. Nunes --- On Mon, 8/10/09, Mario Goveia <[email protected]> wrote: From: Mario Goveia <[email protected]> Subject: [Goanet] While sky is falling new animal species proliferate To: [email protected] Date: Monday, August 10, 2009, 4:49 PM 353 new animal species have been found over the last DECADE, just in the eastern Himalayas, during massive deforestation in the area and the massive worldwide hysteria warning us that the sky is falling fast and the world is going to burn up by rising 2 to 5 F. But are the radical environmentalists happy? Of course not. Their REACTION to this good news, "Yes, but...." http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090810/sc_afp/asiaenvironmentwildlifewwfhimalayas_20090810104611 Excerpt: A flying frog, the world's smallest deer and the first new monkey to be found in over a century are among 350 new species discovered in the eastern Himalayas in the past decade, the WWF said Monday. But the environmental group said the vital habitats of the mountain range were facing growing pressures from unsustainable development in the region, which spans Nepal, China, India, Bhutan and Myanmar. In a report released here Monday, it said climate change, deforestation, overgrazing by domestic livestock and illegal poaching and wildlife trading threatened one of the biologically richest areas of the planet. [end of excerpt]
