The Planet Is Going Through A ‘Catastrophic’ Wilderness Loss, Study Says

[kristopher]

The Planet Is Going Through A ‘Catastrophic’ Wilderness Loss, Study Says
Just over 20 percent of the world can still be considered wilderness.

A tenth of the planet’s wilderness was eradicated in the last two decades and conservation efforts are failing to keep pace with the rate of wilderness loss, according to a new study.

The loss recorded since 1990 is equivalent to an area twice the size of Alaska and half the size of the Amazon, according to the study published Thursday in Current Biology. Most of the depletion is happening in South America, which experienced a nearly 30 percent loss, and Africa, which lost 14 percent of untouched ecosystems.

“Even though 10 percent is quite a small number in some ways, it really means that if we keep this trajectory going we will lose all wilderness in the next 50 years,” said James Watson, lead author and director of science and research initiative at the Wildlife Conservation Society, in an interview with ThinkProgress.

”Without any policies to protect these areas, they are falling victim to widespread development,” he said. “We probably have one to two decades to turn this around.”

Wilderness is defined as largely intact landscapes that are mostly free of human disturbance. These areas do not exclude people; instead, they are free of large-scale land conversion...
https://thinkprogress.org/most-wilderness-is-gone-thanks-to-humans-ad828409f4b6#.3uruqiuad

[handmade34]

1. I crave being in the wild...

I don't believe I could get through my days without the contact I have with the earth... I recognize how very fortunate I am to being able to hike in the woods and mountains... I am always saddened by the encroachment of "civilization" into wild areas

"Without enough wilderness America will change. Democracy, with its myriad personalities and increasing sophistication, must be fibred and vitalized by regular contact with outdoor growths — animals, trees, sun warmth and free skies — or it will dwindle and pale." Walt Whitman

"For I believe that climate does thus react on man- as there is something in the mountain- air that feds the spirit and inspires. Will not man grow to greater perfection intellectually as well as physically under these influences?" Thoreau


“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.” John Muir

"Wilderness itself is the basis of all our civilization. I wonder if we have enough reverence for life to concede to wilderness the right to live on?...I hope that the United States of America is not so rich that she can afford to let these wildernesses pass by. Or so poor that she cannot afford to keep them." Margaret (Mardy) Murie

“The land, the earth God gave to man for his home … should never be the possession of any man, corporation, (or) society … any more than the air or water...Laws change; people die; the land remains.” Abraham Lincoln

http://wilderness.org

[CrispyQ]

2. “We probably have one to two decades to turn this around.”

We're not turning this around. Our planet's diversity is nothing but a commodity for rich folks to make profit off of.

[Nay]

3. All these years, that has been my take on it as well. As long as rich people run

everything in a capitalistic manner, there will be no turnaround. Frankly, I'm surprised there hasn't been a virus let loose to cleanse the earth of all the "useless eaters." That would be the way rich people take care of the environmental problem.