The observation of Earth Day on Saturday , April 22nd marked 48 years since the day’s genesis. Earth Day owes its origin to Senator Gaylord Nelson, who sought to make the business of the environmental health of the earth a political one. At the time, it was still legal for factories to pollute the air and water, and there was no environmental protection agency. Through the actions of some twenty million Americans on April 22nd 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency was born the following December; and the Clean Air, Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts were subsequently passed.
Last year, when I wrote of Earth Day, I wrote of it in the context of the law and the political turbulence in the United States. Following the election of President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly denied climate change and had proposed cutting funds for major environmental agencies, environmental activism has been at a peak on Earth Day. And whilst I still believe that “the function of science is to improve humanity, but if it is not enabled to do so through law and policy, then it cannot”, Earth Day provides us with much more than just a reason to examine environmental law and policy.
It serves as a form of comparative benchmark. How were things different a year ago? What had changed positively? And what has changed negatively? It serves as a means of tracking our progress, and it triggers reflection on, and reassessment of, our actions.
One of the things that I want to focus on is our impact on species. In 2017, the last male northern white rhino, Sudan, passed away from age-related illnesses. The species teeters on the brink of extinction, with the lone two northern white rhinos being direct descendants of Sudan. His death came as a serious blow to conservation efforts, and it was an all-too-painful reminder of the extinction of the West African rhinoceros in 2011. Whilst there are many other subspecies of rhinos in existence, the fact that the one is extinct and another stares extinction in the face is a serious reminder of the dangers of human action on the environment.
Following his death, one National Geographic writer said, “Today we are witnessing the extinction of species that survived for millions of years, but could not survive mankind.” The remaining rhino subspecies remain endangered largely due to poaching.
In December of 2017, the US Fish and Wildlife Service declared the beaverpond marstonia, a tiny freshwater snail found in Georgia, to be extinct. The snail is supposed to have gone extinct due to exploitation of water resources through both overuse for agriculture and through pollution. Joining this depressing list are the Christmas Island pinstrelle, a bat off of the coast of Australia, and three reptiles (the chained gecko, the blue-tailed skink, and the whiptail skink) also from Australia.
However, on the brighter side, some species have rebounded. For example, the Black-eyed leaf frog, whose population grew from critically endangered to of least concern, was dubbed by Jennifer Luedtke, an amphibian specialist at Global Wildlife Conservation, as: “hope in a small, green and black package.”
In addition to rebounding species, there was also a wealth of discovery of new species. According to Michelle Star of Science Alert, if you are familiar with natural science, new species are found relatively frequently. But on November 23, 2017, she wrote that there had been a ‘rarity’; over thirty newly discovered species in one area: the Kaieteur National Park and Potaro River. A press release by the Global Wildlife Conservation revealed that among these newly discovered species, there were s
ix species of fish, three plants, fifteen aquatic beetles, and five odonates (carnivorous insects like dragonflies). The press release also gave Guyana the shining title of “one of the world’s most important countries for biodiversity conservation”. It explained that, “Guyana has the second highest percentage (of) forest cover on Earth, high levels of biological diversity, and species that are found nowhere else.” Guyana even made several news outlets for the stunning discovery of a cobalt blue tarantula. The colour blue is of particular interest to scientists, as it does not occur very frequently in nature, and often times when it does, instead of it being caused by an actual blue pigment, it is caused by the microscopic arrangement of cells and the way those cells scatter and reflect light.
While all of this is impressive, I personally do not feel as though the discovery of new species makes much impact, if we do not care for them appropriately. According to the Global Wildlife Conservation, (about Guyana), “Over the past decade, WWF Guianas has been working with stakeholders at all levels to address the growing pressures on the environment.”
I can only hope that these pressures do not win and ultimately harm our incredibly diverse environment. For a few days, Guyana had the world in awe with one spider. Imagine how much else is left undiscovered, and what we risk destroying in the name of development.
