Some people have a gift for the arresting figure: exhibit a) the report from international conservation experts which points out that every member of the 25 most endangered primate species on the planet could fit into a single football stadium (though they don’t let on as to whether you need a superdome or just a set of high school bleachers). Exhibit b) is the UN’s latest environmental audit, which reveals that the most numerous primate may be degrading its environment past the point where recovery is possible.
The few:
The World Conservation Union has issued a new report entitled Primates in Peril: The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates—2006–2008. “You could fit all the surviving members of these 25 species in a single football stadium; that’s how few of them remain on Earth today. The situation is worst in Asia, where tropical forest destruction and the hunting and trading of monkeys puts many species at terrible risk. Even newly discovered species are severely threatened from loss of habitat and could soon disappear,” says Russell Mittermeier, chair of the union’s Primate Specialist Group (press release).
Mittermeirer reckons it wouldn’t take much money to make a big difference – just a few thousand dollars in some cases. “With what we spend in one day in Iraq we could fund primate conservation for the next decade for every endangered and critically endangered and vulnerable species out there,” he told Reuters. Putting a silver lining in the cloud, AP notes that nine primates from the last report in 2004 have now been taken off the list. Coverage has also reached the BBC, the Telegraph, the Times.
The many:
A major new report from the UN slams the steps that we have taken as a species to mitigate our impact on the environment. The United Nations Environment Programme thinks climate change, extinction of species and the need to feed a growing population are all unresolved and all putting humanity at risk (press release 1, report page).
“The fact that we are in the year 2007, with all the knowledge that we have and with all the capacity to do things differently – to present to the world at this point a report that essentially says that our response has been woefully inadequate is a very sobering realization,” says Achim Steiner, UNEP’s executive director. (press release 2). As an op ed piece in the Times points out, “Prophets of doom are ten a penny but this time it’s serious.”
Over a thousand scientists were involved in putting together the report. Some sources are reporting that it states every person on Earth requires a third more land to their needs than the planet can actually provide (Guardian and Times for example). The report states that humanity’s environmental demand is 21.9 hectares per person while the Earth’s biological capacity is, on average, only 15.7 ha/person. Clearly it is time to restate an aged truism: what you want and what you need are two different things.
Image: a golden headed langur ponders extinction / © Russell A. Mittermeier