Habitat

The Earth's habitats are disappearing at an impossibly dangerous and damaging rate. Key issues outlined here include:

1. forests
2. water, ocean and marine habitats
3. rainforests
4. wilderness

There is also a list of useful sites and sources on habitat.

Forests

Nearly 50% of the Earth's forests have gone. Just 8% per cent of those that remain are protected. It is essential to preserve and regenerate forests: they are critical to the rest of life by providing rich, varied and vibrant habitats to millions of species, helping stop soil erosion, purifying air, providing food and affording shelter to humans as well as being places for exploration and recreation. It is likely that – as resources – they contain much of value about which humans as yet no little or nothing… healthful drugs, for example.

Roughly 25 hectares of forest is lost each minute to illegal logging and land clearance for agriculture. Other threats to forests come from genetically engineered trees, mining, oil and gas extraction, projects to destroy land's infrastructure and urban sprawl. Every year nearly 900,000,000 trees are cut down to provide raw materials for American paper and pulp mills.

Water, ocean and marine habitats

About 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by the sea, which contains 97% of all water on Earth. Every natural element can be found in the ocean. In coastal areas life is especially diverse – partly because there are so many different coastal habitats: estuaries, sloughs, mangroves, salt marshes, intertidal areas, sounds, bays, lagoons, channels, inshore waters, coral reefs, and kelp forests. It is impossible to say for sure how many species live in the sea because they are being 'discovered' every day… as recently as 1977 deep sea hydrothermal vents were discovered on the ocean floor in which are thousands of 'new' animals. A very rough figure is that 10 million different kinds of organisms are in the Earth's oceans. Nearly half the Earth's major animal groups live only in the sea. Over 25% of all marine species, for example, depend on coral reefs alone. There are thought to be about 13,000 different species of fish.

The ocean and the atmosphere interact: more heat and energy are stored in the ocean than in the atmosphere. Ocean currents help to balance and distribute this heat and energy around the planet and to regulate temperatures. Oceans and marine life consume huge amounts of CO2 (carbon dioxide) and have their own food cycles operating both vertically (at different ocean depths) and horizontally (in parallel with the surface of the water). A recent (April 13, 2001) study in Science notes that – in line with the rest of the Earth – its oceans are warming; one estimate is that the energy added to the oceans in the past 40 years are enough to meet the California's energy needs for 2,000 centuries.

Threats to water habitats are:

• cruise ships: carrying more than 5,000 passengers often for weeks at a time they inevitably generate enormous amounts of waste, including millions of gallons of waste water every day, as well as significant amounts of hazardous wastes from onboard printing, photo processing, and dry cleaning operations. The cruise industry has a poor pollution record: theUS General Accounting Office found that, from 1993 to 1998 alone, cruise ships were involved in 104 confirmed cases of illegal dumping, and have paid more than US$30 million in fines
• ship emissions: pollution from commercial vessels is growing fast and poorly regulated in the United States. Marine engines operate on 'bunker oil', the dirtiest and least expensive form of fuel available which contains high concentrations of toxic fuel compounds banned from use in most other industrial and consumer applications. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed emission standards for marine diesels which are scheduled to take effect in 2006. They are more than three times the standard for on-road diesels produced after 2002 but completely exclude bunker fuel. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that ship emissions are far larger than previously estimated and are a highly significant contributor to global nitrogen (14%), and sulfur emissions from all petroleum sources (16%). Both of these pollutants have been implicated in global warming. In California, for example, more than 30% of the total sulfur inventory may be attributable to ship emissions. Researchers conclude that ship emissions are a critical – and overlooked – element in global climate change
• fast ferries: amazingly fast ferries are responsible for more atmospheric pollution than either cars or buses. They have actually become much dirtier in the last 30 years thanks to increased fuel consumption, higher speeds and inadequate regulation
• dredging: unregulated trawlers drag huge heavy nets, chains and gear along the bottom of the ocean floor scraping away all life forms and habitat, and destroying vast ecosystems which are essential to the ocean's – and the Earth's – health. Ocean bottom inhabitants and marine ecosystems are ripped up, crushed, exposed, and buried. What took centuries or thousands of years to develop is swept up and totally destroyed by one pass of a fishing trawler. As much as 70% of sealife scraped up in the nets is not 'usable' or sought by the trawlers. All such dead and dying 'bycatch' fish and marine animals are tossed back into the ocean
• oil, sewage and toxic waste discharges: several key provisions of the Oil Pollution Act (1990) in the United States have yet to be implemented by the Coast Guard – preventable oil spills still occur
• river dam projects: dams reduce river levels, block rivers, slow their rate and the timing of their flow and alter water temperatures. These have the joint effects of eroding soil, degrading shorelines, starving water-dwelling creatures of food and oxygen and impeding access for migration and breeding, of disturbing river populations, exposing them to greater unnatural risk from predators, or of killing water populations outright. Dams additionally hold back silt, debris, and nutrients. Dam turbines cut up fish
• every year 45,000 tons of plastic waste are dumped into the world's oceans. One of the results of this is that up to one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed each year by plastic trash such as fishing gear, six-pack yokes, sandwich bags, and styrofoam cups
• MTBE: the pollutant methyl tertiary-butyl ether is used as a fuel additive to allow manufacturers to reach the minimum fuel-oxygen requirement specified by the US Clean Air Act of 1990. Intended to reduce emissions of carbon monoxide, smog and other toxic chemicals, the water-soluble MTBE – classified by the US Environmental Protection Agency as possibly carcinogenic – is leading to serious contamination of drinking water supplies. A recent report analyzing public records shows, for example, that 1,200 leaks currently threaten the drinking water in 48 wells in California, which supply millions of residents. It is likely to cost many billions of dollars and decades to clean up the effects of MTBE worldwide. A feasible and preferable alternative to MTBE is biomass ethanol
• oil pollution: huge amounts of oil are discharged into the world's oceans every year. Routine maintenance alone accounts for 137 million gallons, nearly 100 million gallons from air pollution, and 15 million gallons from offshore drilling. Big spills put 37 million gallons into the seas annually and naturally eroding sedimentary rock already accounts for twice that much. While used engine oil accounts for about a million gallons a day! All of this has devastating consequences for the marine life: water and oil do not mix
• over-fishing: the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) indicates that of the world's 15 main fishing regions, four are depleted and nine are declining. This global fisheries crisis is primarily a result of overharvesting. The world's marine catch has increased more than four times in the past 40 years – from 18.5 million tons in 1952 to 89 million tons in 1989. Several decades of overfishing in most of the world's major fisheries has produced a critical decline in the numbers of many fish populations, for example some species of cod. Catches are falling, despite the fact that expanding fleets are fishing harder, spending more time, effort and money than ever before in trying to maintain them.
• 2-stroke engines: the motor currently found on 75% of all watercraft and all snowmobiles is the inefficient and polluting 2-stroke engine, which fails to burn 25 to 30% of the fuel supplied to it. Over one billion pounds of hydrocarbon are emitted annually into the atmosphere in the United States alone. A better alternative is 4-stroke
• authorities in many countries do a notoriously poor job of enforcing clean water laws; United States environmental enforcers, for example, were recently found that many polluters and contraveners of Clean Water Acts go undetected and unresolved.

Human activity even at a distance from the coast can have negative effects on it: soil, pesticides, fertilizer residues are carried into streams during rain storms and thence to coastal waters. The loss and/or removal of plants such as mangroves, sea grasses and coral reefs increases land erosion and makes coastlines vulnerable to storm damage.

Loss or destruction of ocean habitat ultimately affects all life on Earth: breeding areas for coastal inhabitants, which include turtles, invertebrates, birds and other animals as well as fish, disappear or are compromised. A perceived but mistaken need for more food globally leads to ever more severe overfishing fish and shrimp farming in places such as Ecuador and Indonesia. These are almost always at the expense of coastal habitats.

Rainforests

Arguably the Earth's very richest environments, there are actually between 30 and 40 different types of rainforest, classified according to their temperature and rainfall. As early as 45 millions years ago rainforests covered much of world; as late as 5,000 years ago they still covered 14% of the surface of the Earth. Half of that has now been destroyed – purely for commercial interests – mostly in the last 50 years. Of the 2.4bn acres left, 14m are destroyed annually. That's 30 acres every minute. Between 40 and 50% of all living species live in rainforests.

South America has 57% of remaining rainforest, SE Asia and the Pacific Islands 25% and West Africa 18%. While 37 countries have significant amounts of rainforest, three countries have more than half the total: Brazil (33%), Zaire (10%) and Indonesia (10%). A recent report by the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) suggests that there are just 15 countries (Russia, Canada, Brazil, the United Stated, Democratic Republic of Congo, China, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, India, Australia, and Papua-New Guinea) containing over 80% of the forests most in need of protection – and that these should be concentrated upon. The survey containing these conclusions is the first global forest survey using satellite data, and provides an objective baseline for future comparisons. Concentrating on remaining 'Closed Forests', (those with at least 40% of their canopy closed); the UNep report proposes that only these forests can now be considered healthy and ecologically in good working order. Many of them are home to some of the world's rarest species, including the giant panda and the mountain gorilla.

Apparent need for land is often seen as the reason for rainforest destruction. This is not the case: when removed, cattle ranching is typically what replaces them. In other words commercial concerns are destroying an irreplaceable natural resource to take 5 cents off the price of unhealthy, cruelly-produced carcasses for already adequately-nourished North American consumers. Many ranching operations fail: they are quite unsuited to tropical agriculture. There are many alternatives to clearcutting for wood and paper, for example.

It is widely believed that rainforests are the 'lungs of the planet'. In fact one of the characteristics that make them so valuable is that – because of their immense age – the soil is actually relatively poor. They are such rich ecosystems because they are closed systems, self-sustaining, recycling everything and in wonderful equilibrium. Up to 75% of rainforests' necessary nutrients are already in the biomass – and stay there. All natural occurrences, such as trees that fall or die, promote the multi-level natural regeneration necessary for the forests to survive and renew everything they support. Even the people who live in this environment are well-adapted to it… they sweat less, have lower metabolic rates and appear better able to store proteins and other nutrients in their bodies than those of the westerners and northerners who continue violently to destroy their livelihood.

Wilderness

The etymology of the word 'wilderness' is interesting: its root in early Teutonic and Norse languages is really 'self-willed' or uncontrolled' hence 'being lost', 'unruly', 'disordered', 'confused'… or 'wild'. When applied to animals and plants the inference was that they were outside human control. Pleasingly, 'wilderness' has come to have associations in modern dictionaries with terms like 'beautiful', 'friendly', and 'capable of elevating and delighting us' because of this.

Among the reasons to respect, preserve and regenerate the Earth's wildernesses:

• they are a necessary part of the ecosystem in their own right; they contribute much to the benefits of having a biodiverse environment from which all life gains
• they are a natural and necessary home for the rich variety of plants and animals on which the rest of life on earth depends
• they are beautiful and inspiring in their own right – not least for the humans who may live there or visit them
• wilderness plays a significant role in the overall health of ecosystems: rare and endangered plant and animal species require habitats that are relatively undisturbed so that gene pools can be sustained, adaptations made, and populations maintained
• wilderness promotes natural disturbances like floods or fires; these allow natural processes, systems, and patterns to be maintained. Few places are left where rivers, flood and trees are allowed to burn in natural cycles. Wildness is the heart of what Aldo Leopold called the 'land organism'
• there is a unique scientific value in wilderness: it serves as an irreplaceable and unreproducible 'living laboratory' for medicinal and scientific research
• wilderness also protects geologic resources: undisturbed, naturally occurring geological phenomena are protected for the future and will lead to a greater understanding of the Earth's past – thus enhancing our chances of a better present and future
• many wildernesses are at the head of rivers and water systems. They are sources of clean water and as such need to be kept pure and unpolluted
• wilderness is a unique record of cultural development: the same degree and quality of protection needs to be extended to wilderness as to the artifacts, structures and remains which evidence human life in the past
• wilderness is a defining cultural force: the values of freedom, ingenuity and independence in many parts of the world have been changed and proved by the wild environments in and out of which human societies originated
• spiritually wilderness has a paramount place in the world's religions: the inspiration afforded by wildness both to individuals and organized faith enhances life beyond measure
• humans are enchanted by nature: maybe because we are not in control, but are participants, we derive significant and enduring pleasure from the aesthetics of wild places
• wildernesses afford the pleasures of recreation for humans: from the simple joy of being surrounded by often quiet plenty and 'raw creation' to self-enhancement from overcoming challenges in what may otherwise be hostile or overwhelming circumstances… lessons of the wild teach us something about being human and what our relationship to nature – and our self – is all about
• wilderness may serve as a refuge for many from the pressure of what in other respects can be a hectic fast-paced lives
• we can learn much from wilderness about nature, geological features and the way wildlife works when unaffected by humans

Wilderness management is essentially the regulation of human use and influence in order to preserve the quality, character and integrity of these protected lands; this may include the limitation of consumption and prevention of inappropriate use. Some potential threats to wilderness include:

• loss of character, quality and integrity
• loss of – or threats to – biological/ecological processes and biodiversity through human disturbance
• damage to the 'superstructure': soil compaction, vegetation loss or disturbance and replacement by non-native species
• heavy recreation use
• crowding; loss of solitude
• deterioration of water quality
• air pollution
• interruption of natural functioning ecosystems by fire suppression
• threats to native plant species from the spread of noxious weeds from sources outside wilderness

Sources of information on habitat

The Forest Conservation portal is a good source on forests containing links to (and an ability to search) nearly 1,000 related sites.

Oceans: the Bluewater network, the Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL), the Mangrove Action Project (MAP) and the Ocean Trust.
Rainforests: the Rainforest Action Network and the Rainforest Alliance.
Wilderness: The Wilderness Society, wilderness.net and of course theSierra Club's wildlands campaign.