Added: 360 days ago by By Jingo | Posted in: World | 5 Comments

Rating:

 

Share:     Embed:     Fave:    

Item added to your favorites.

You must be logged in to add to your faves. Use the login box on this page or click here to regsiter.

<div align='center'><a href='http://www.kontraband.com/blog/14855/The-Frog-Swan-Song/'>The Frog (Swan) Song</a><br><div align='center'></div><br><a href='http://www.kontraband.com/blog'>See more like this on kontraband.com</a></div>

I've just spent 20 minutes looking at graphs that have squiggly lines on them, they're all progressing in a disturbingly downward fashion and I've come to the conclusion that we're all pretty much f#cked. I've not been looking at the graphs of phantom value that have got our bankers jumping from windows like it's 1929...well, actually they've not been doing that, they've been giving themselves bonuses. But I'm sure those f#cks feel absolutely terrible now that they know whenever they f#ck up taxpayers will bail them out...I f#cking hate those furry front bottoms!

But anyway, I haven't been looking at those graphs. I've been looking at ones that are actually based on tangible assets and are much more important. One was about frogs. Back in the 1940s African clawed frogs were shipped to South America for research into pregnancy testing, because the females laid eggs when injected with a pregnant human's urine. Clawed frogs are also notable as they are one of the very, very few species of amphibians that are resistant to the chytrid fungus. This fungus attaches itself to an amphibian's skin and closes over the pores they use to hydrate themselves. That's fatal. The African frogs promptly spread this fungus across the continent and, well, go and google 'frog' and 'crisis'. Done? Did you notice a lot of phrases like 'worst extinction since the dinosaurs' or headlines stating 'Frog Extinction Catastrophic, Scientists Say'?

After stretching its legs for the previous 50 years the chytrid fungus finally put on its running shoes around 10 years ago and started to really get going. 170 species have gone extinct since 1997 and the numbers for a further 1,900 species are plunging through the 'threatened stage' straight into the endangered designation (meaning extinction is imminent). Worldwide 1 in 3 amphibians are threatened - 1 in 3.

The more inbred of you might be thinking 'So what?' If you are thinking that I'd like you to go and take a bath with an electric fire, the world has enough stupidity and yours is definitely an expendable surplus. Native South American frogs are a treasure trove of exotic chemical compounds that among many other things are the most likely to produce cures for AIDS and cancer. There is also the small matter of disease-carrying mosquitoes suddenly having their natural predators removed. A few South American governments commissioned studies into the resulting health crisis and the financial costs will make 'Credit Crunch' look like a gentle 'Money Hug' in comparison.

But it's not all bad news. (Remove "But" and "not" from the previous sentence.) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species shows at least 1,141 of the 5,487 mammals on Earth are known to be threatened with extinction. That's less than 1 in 5, but it's actually probably much worse as there were 836 species listed as Data Deficient which means that no-one has been able to find out their true situations. 188 mammal species are critically endangered - that's when it's down to triple digit numbers for an entire species.

Taken over all the different species the IUCN Red List now includes 44,838 species, of which 16,928 are threatened with extinction (38 percent). Of these, 3,246 are Critically Endangered (the worst one), 4,770 are Endangered and 8,912 are Vulnerable to extinction. The IUCN are now running to get to grips with what's happening to micro-organisms, although if they're following the trends happening in the world of the visible creatures - if they are - well there is some good news, you won't need to worry about your stocks and pensions disappearing.

If you're one of the idiots who might be thinking 'It's never as bad as they say, everything will work out OK in the end' then I suggest that you also go take a bath with an electric fire, also. After all things are never as bad as they say. I'm sure it'll just tickle.

Added: 360 days ago by By Jingo | Posted in: World | 5 Comments

Rating: