Amphibians face extinction (1 Viewer)

[talloulou]

For the first time in modern history, because of the way that humans are impacting our natural world, we're facing the extinction of an entire class of organisms," said Claude Gascon of Conservation International. "This is not the extinction of just a panda or a rhino, it's a whole class of organisms."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-060706frogs,1,1106176.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Is it possible that amphibians are going to be wiped from the Earth and it's our fault? Has anyone even noticed a lack of amphibians in their area? I have tons of frogs in my front yard. What's up with this?

 

[Gill]

For the first time in modern history, because of the way that humans are impacting our natural world, we're facing the extinction of an entire class of organisms," said Claude Gascon of Conservation International. "This is not the extinction of just a panda or a rhino, it's a whole class of organisms."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-060706frogs,1,1106176.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Is it possible that amphibians are going to be wiped from the Earth and it's our fault? Has anyone even noticed a lack of amphibians in their area? I have tons of frogs in my front yard. What's up with this?

Damn!!! No more frog legs for dinner??

 

[Sir_Alec]

Oh snap, when amphibians go the insect population will skyrocket leading to more diseases and a possible new plague. Trust me I'm not joking around here. The possible effects of all amphibians going extinct could be astounding if we do nothing about it.

 

[Deegan]

We all face this, the frogs are the least of my concern. That said, I think another sheet of ice will be in our future, but we managed to survive, and will again. Some people just have too much time on their hands, I wish I had that luxury, for cris sake......I do wish I had that time!:roll:

 

[talloulou]

We all face this, the frogs are the least of my concern. That said, I think another sheet of ice will be in our future, but we managed to survive, and will again. Some people just have too much time on their hands, I wish I had that luxury, for cris sake......I do wish I had that time!:roll:

That's the thing though I never know what to take seriously when it comes to the environment. Certainly if all the amphibians went extinct that could be a huge deal....but are they really going extinct? I have cute little tree frogs all over out front!

I guess it's like everything else....global warming, polar shift, mass extinction....you can view it all as chicken little claims but at what point do we start taking this crap seriously?

Why do I know all about Heather Locklear dating David Spade yet I don't know how seriously to take global warming or the suggestion that California will one day fall into the ocean? I know the names of Brad and Angelinas kids and I know about Kevin Federline but I couldn't tell you the names of the top scientists in charge of answering these important environmental questions. What's up with that?

 

[talloulou]

here's another story...


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/07/07/MNG0LJRC9U1.DTL

"The fungus was discovered in Australia and Panama only eight years ago and since then has spread across Europe and both the Americas, causing skin infections called chytrid disease in every amphibian species it attacks. The death rate from the infections is 100 percent, biologists have found. The disease, they concluded, "causes catastrophic mortality in amphibian populations, and subsequent extinctions.""

 

[Kandahar]

The earth is currently going through a mass extinction phase nearly as severe as the one that wiped out the dinosaurs, mainly because of humans. We don't notice it because the changes span the course of several hundred years...but several hundred years is the blink of an eye in geological terms.

Be worried, but don't panic. Hopefully the worst is behind us (or at least not THAT far ahead of us). The environment should start getting better and biological diversity should improve once we get more "mature" technology by the 2020s-2030s.

 

[Gill]

According to La Marca (2005), most of the toad and frog extinctions took place between 1984 and 1996 in the regions studied in the current paper by Pounds. This was shortly after the first discovery of the chytrid fungus in the region, which is described by Lips et al. in 2003 in the Journal of Herpetology. According to Daszak et al. (2003) in the journal Diversity and Distribution , the chytrid fungus was most likely introduced by humans, possibly by ecotourists and/or field researchers (Daszak et al., 1999).

Daszak, P., et al., 2003. Infectious disease and amphibian population declines. Diversity and Distributions, 9, 141-150.

La Marca, E., et al., Catastrophic population declines and extinctions in Neotropical harlequin frogs (Bufonidae: Atelopus). Biotropica, 37, 190-201.