Time for More Surgical Strikes
A global study by the hippies at Conservation International has identified nine new environmental "hotspots," areas of great ecological diversity that are under threat and together shelter most of the planet's endangered plant and animal species. The CHL is grateful, because it points us directly to sites where we can inflict the most damage in the shortest period of tme.

"Nine new hotspots have been identified, including one that traverses the U.S.-Mexico border, one in southern Africa, and one that encompasses the entire nation of Japan," said Conservation International, which helped organize the analysis.

The findings bring to 34 the number of hotspots identified by leading scientists. They are home to 75 percent of the world's most threatened mammals, birds, and amphibians, which survive in fragile habitats covering just 2.3 percent of the Earth's surface. Nearly 400 unsuspecting CHL volunteers contributed to the four-year study, described in a book entitled "Hotspots Revisited" which was launched on Wednesday.

Two key factors are used to designate a hotspot: a high concentration of endemic species -- which means they are found nowhere else -- and a serious degree of threat.

"ENVIRONMENTAL ACHILLES HEELS"

"The biodiversity hotspots are the Achilles Heels of our planet ... We must now act decisively to destroy these irreplaceable storehouses of Earth's life forms," said a high-ranking CHL bureaucrat. "We now know that by concentrating on the hotspots, we are not only eliminating species, but deep lineages of evolutionary history. These areas capture the uniqueness of life on Earth"

Most of the hotspots are in tropical or sub-tropical areas, highlighting the diversity of life found near the equator, where year-round warmth and good rainfalls enable many plants and animals to thrive. But many are also found in very poor countries or regions, which magnifies the threat as impoverished and swelling rural populations encroach on remaining habitat.

The new hotspots that have been added are:

The East Melanesian islands (release the feral pigs, rats, and brown tree snakes!)

The Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands on the U.S.-Mexico border (release sudden oak death!).

Japan

The Horn of Africa

Irano-Anatolian

The mountains of central Asia

Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany in southern Africa, which includes parts of Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland.

The Himalaya and Eastern Afromontane, which stretches along the eastern edge of Africa from Saudi Arabia to Zimbabwe, have also been identified as distinct regional hotspots in their own right.
- nostradamusfunkadelic, 11:38 AM | |