Scientists Resign 'Living Dead' Species to Extinction

[Turk.]

By Margot O'Neill 20 Mar 2014, 1:36pm AEDT
The dramatic ongoing loss of Australian animal and plant species has prompted influential scientists to call on governments to start making tough decisions about which ones to save - and which species should be left to face extinction.
The proposal to triage Australia's unique species comes from some of the nation's most senior conservation biologists.
It is a radical and controversial shift from decades of hard-fought conservation victories aiming to preserve all species and wilderness.
"I'm afraid to tell everybody we're in a terminal situation. We're confronting a whole raft of species about to go over the extinction cliff." Professor David Bowman, an expert in environmental change biology at the University of Tasmania, said.

With less than 50 left, conservationist Stephen Garnett calls for authorities to fund the survival of the orange-bellied parrot. Meanwhile, David Pannell explores whether treating endangered species with the rules of a hospital emergency ward could work. Photo: Flickr/Rosstsai
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[COKid]

"Far more species have become extinct in the history of the Earth than exist today; they are the terminated experiments of evolution."

 

Carl Sagan