Frank Carini: Dangerous Animal and Plant diversity loss in New England
New England Cottontail Rabbit, a species that is imperiled.
Excerpted and edited from an ecoRI News article by Frank Carini. Photo above isn’t from the article.
“Habitat loss is the greatest threat to southern New England’s biodiversity, from small to large species.
“The animals and insects that make southern New England interesting and special are being squeezed out of existence by the very species that needs them to survive.’’
“Humans aren’t giving the natural world the space it needs and deserves. We’re crowding out non-human life, which, in turn, makes nature less productive and us less healthy. The natural world is too often viewed only through the lens of what it can give us or how it can entertain us.
“Animals and plants are going extinct faster than any period in human history — a million species threatened with extinction, and extinctions now occurring some 1,000 times more frequently than before humans. The planet’s sixth mass extinction is being driven by human activity though the burning of fossil fuels and our unsustainable use of land and water.’’
“The loss of biodiversity, along with climate change, are ‘widely recognized as the foremost environmental challenges of our time,’ according to a 2019 study authored by three southern New England researchers.
“They wrote that ‘proforestation provides the most effective solution to dual global crises — climate change and biodiversity loss.”’