The World Wildlife Fund and Climate Change
The theme of this week's annual World Wildlife Fund dinner, at the Newseum in Pennsylvania Avenue, was climate change.
At first blush, this might seem surprising. We're all familiar with WWF's symbol of a black and white Giant Panda. WWF is a conservation organisation. They try to save endangered species, don't they? Why the emphasis on climate change?
Actually, it's pretty obvious when you think about it. The broad description of WWF's work is to encourage people to share the resources of our planet with other creatures and the natural world at large. Their vision, according to the WWF web site, starts with the aspiration to "seek to save a planet, a world of life. Reconciling the needs of human beings and the needs of others that share the Earth, we seek to practice conservation that is humane in the broadest sense".
The fact is that climate change and conservation are inextricably linked. As the WWF says, "every day a new story emerges about a species, habitat or a community affected by the impacts of climate change".
New analysis reported in the science magazine, Nature, suggests that 15-37% of a sample of 1,103 land plants and animals could eventually become extinct as a result of climate changes expected by 2050.
The WWF's Living Planet Index measures the population of some 1,300 species of vertebrates. Their records show a 30% reduction in numbers between 1970 and 2003. As WWF says, we are degrading natural ecosystems at a rate unprecedented in human history.
So climate change is rightly a WWF concern. If we fail to reduce the harm done to nature by human activity, we shall be bequeathing a dying planet to future generations.
Posted at 09:33 16 October 2008 by Dominick Chilcott | Comments[2]
- Share this with:
-
-
-
-
-