It is estimated that one-third of all reef-building corals, a third of all fresh-water mollusks, a third of sharks and rays, a quarter of all mammals, a fifth of all reptiles, and a sixth of all birds are headed toward oblivion. The losses are occurring all over: in the South Pacific and in the North Atlantic, in the Arctic and the Sahel, in lakes and on islands, on mountaintops and in valleys.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the alarming decline of various species across different ecosystems due to environmental threats.
Elizabeth Kolbert's quote serves as a stark reminder of the ongoing biodiversity crisis affecting countless species around the globe. By illustrating the specific percentages of various groups headed toward extinction, she emphasizes the urgency of addressing environmental degradation and conservation efforts to preserve our planet's wildlife and ecosystems.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of environmental conservation.
Today we're seeing that climate change is about more than a few unseasonably mild winters or hot summers. It's about the chain of natural catastrophes and devastating weather patterns that global warming is beginning to set off around the world.. the frequency and intensity of which are breaking records thousands of years old.
When I was 7 and went to the zoo with my second-grade class, I saw chimpanzee eyes for the first time - the eyes of an unhappy animal, all alone, locked in a bare, concrete-floored, iron-barred cage in one of the nastier, old-fashioned zoos. I remember looking at the chimp, then looking away.
This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-paradise, This fortress built by Nature for herself Against infection and the hand of war, This happy breed of men, this little world, This precious stone set in the silver sea, Which serves it in the office of a wall Or as a moat defensive to a house, Against the envy of less happier lands,--This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
We are in grave danger of losing forever not just millions of years of evolution on earth, but the eons of change that have produced man and his natural environment.
I stared up at the ebbing quarter moon and the stars scattered like a handful of salt across the faraway sky.
Why is it so easy to save the banks - but so hard to save the biosphere?
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