Longer life for humans linked to further loss of species

[cronus]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/ ... 100913.php

Longer life for humans linked to further loss of endangered species

As human life expectancy increases, so does the percentage of invasive and endangered birds and mammals, according to a new study by the University of California, Davis.

The study, published in the September issue of Ecology and Society, examined a combination of 15 social and ecological variables -- from tourism and per capita gross domestic product to water stress and political stability. Then researchers analyzed their correlations with invasive and endangered birds and mammals, which are two indicators of what conservationist Aldo Leopold termed "land sickness," the study said.

Human life expectancy, which is rarely included among indexes that examine human impacts on the environment, surfaced as the key predictor of global invasions and extinctions.

"It's not a random pattern," said lead author Aaron Lotz, a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology when the study was conducted. "Out of all this data, that one factor -- human life expectancy -- was the determining factor for endangered and invasive birds and mammals."

(continued,'If the earth dies, you die. If you die, the earth survives')

[JimC]

I refuse to feel guilty until I've had my telegram from the Queen...

[Audley Strange]

Man we are fucking hardcore! Fuck you Venezuelan Tree Beavers, where your god now eh?

[Blind groper]

The implication is total bullshit.

Human longevity may correlate with loss of species, but longevity also correlates with a whole lot of other things related to human welfare. If we have a better economy, we live longer. So what kills those species? The longevity or the more dynamic economy?

I certainly will not feel guilty because I am living 2 to 3 times as long as my ancestors did.

[cronus]

The implication is total bullshit.

Human longevity may correlate with loss of species, but longevity also correlates with a whole lot of other things related to human welfare. If we have a better economy, we live longer. So what kills those species? The longevity or the more dynamic economy?

I certainly will not feel guilty because I am living 2 to 3 times as long as my ancestors did.

No. You are doing it wrong. Species don't matter only genes do. Think through the implications properly and weep for a perishing humanity.

[Blind groper]

Huh??

Since when was humanity perishing?