by dbruning » Thu 16 Aug 2007, 13:27:39
Don't forget pollution and runoff, pretty sure they contributed to it as well.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'n')dustrial pollution, depleted food due to overfishing, loss of habitat, and the construction of the Three Gorges Dam put further pressure on the dolphin.
http://news.scotsman.com/international. ... 1241492007Isn't there some absolutely horrific number of species becoming extinct every year now?
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')hillip and Donald Levin estimate that right now one species is going extinct every 20 minutes, and that half of bird and mammal species will be gone in 200 to 300 years. Richard Leakey estimates a loss of between 50,000 and 100,000 species a year, and says that only during the Big Five mass extinctions was the rate comparably high. E. O. Wilson gives a similar estimate. In his book, Michael Benton reviews the sources of uncertainty and makes an estimate of his own: given that there are probably somewhere between 20 and 100 million species in total, he estimates an extinction rate of between 5,000 and 25,000 species per year. This means between 14 and 70 species wiped out per day.
Regardless of whether the world is changing due to solar flareups, human activity, or little green men trying to cook us in our own juices, the world is changing.