Every two years, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature publishes a “red list” of endangered species. This year’s list, just out, names 11,167 species, up 121 since 2000.
One of the species featured on this year’s list is the saiga, an antelope native to central Asia. Ten years ago, there were over a million saiga, today there are an estimated 50,000 in the wild. The saiga are being pushed to extinction by poachers, who are hunting the animal for its meat and its horns, which are used in traditional medicine.
This is extinction done the old-fashioned way, by hunters killing animals one at a time, the way the European lion was driven to extinction in the days when Roman emperors still roamed the Earth or the way Americans shotgunned the passenger pigeon from the skies in the early 20th century.
The saiga extinction is old-fashioned in another sense. A growing human population is putting pressure on the saiga for life’s necessities – food and medicine. Here in Vermont, it’s bow season for deer, our antelope-like mammal. Although many hunters eat what they kill, they are not subsistence hunters. I don’t think anyone is using the horns for medicine. A wealthy enclave along the shore of Lake Champlain has invited bow hunters in to thin the deer herd that lives among the mansions. Although the human population of Vermont is denser than that of central Asia, we have too many hoofed and antlered animals, not too few.
In the industrialized world, extinction takes other forms. Here, we no longer hunt species to extinction. Here we destroy habitat, wipe out food sources, spread disease and change the climate. In the Klamath River, along the Oregon-California border, 30,000 salmon have died of a parasite outbreak in recent weeks. Everyone agrees the outbreak is linked to warmer water temperatures in the river. Salmon fishermen say the Klamath River is warm because too much water has been diverted to irrigate inland farms. Farmers say the river is warmer because it’s – warmer. The planet is warming, the west is locked in a drought cycle and everything is just – warmer.
Pacific salmon, unlike the Asian saiga, are not in danger of becoming extinct in the next few years, but they may stop running in the Klamath River. That’s not extinction, but it is a clear warning. The Klamath once had the third largest run of Pacific salmon in the lower 48. Native Americans and fishermen rely on those fish for their livelihood.
The first blow to the salmon population came when irrigation dams were built across the Klamath. Salmon live in the ocean, but return to their birth streams to spawn. No spawning, no future generations. Still, some salmon returned to spawn in the lower reaches of the river. There the water was silted by topsoil runoff from logging operations and polluted with agricultural chemicals.
In the past few years, you may have noticed news articles about the irrigation waters of the Klamath. There has not been enough water to satisfy both the farmers’ desire for irrigation and the fishermen’s desire for a strong salmon run. The Clinton administration tended to side with the fishermen and restricted the water available for irrigation. This led to angry confrontations between farmers and water management officials. The Bush administration has tended to side with the farmers and the fishermen say this has led to the recent fish kills. Whether it was the dams, the water diversion or the global warming-induced drought, the Klamath salmon are endangered by human activity, just the same as the Asian saiga.
Manual Lujan, interior secretary under the first President Bush, once wondered if we need to save every species. We should at least try. You don’t have to be a militant animal rights activist to realize the interdependence of all life on Earth.
Eventually, one way or another, the species we save will be our own.
All the Fish in the Stream
Every two years, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature publishes a “red list” of endangered species. This year’s list, just out, names 11,167 species, up 121 since 2000.
One of the species featured on this year’s list is the saiga, an antelope native to central Asia. Ten years ago, there were over a million saiga, today there are an estimated 50,000 in the wild. The saiga are being pushed to extinction by poachers, who are hunting the animal for its meat and its horns, which are used in traditional medicine.
This is extinction done the old-fashioned way, by hunters killing animals one at a time, the way the European lion was driven to extinction in the days when Roman emperors still roamed the Earth or the way Americans shotgunned the passenger pigeon from the skies in the early 20th century.
The saiga extinction is old-fashioned in another sense. A growing human population is putting pressure on the saiga for life’s necessities – food and medicine. Here in Vermont, it’s bow season for deer, our antelope-like mammal. Although many hunters eat what they kill, they are not subsistence hunters. I don’t think anyone is using the horns for medicine. A wealthy enclave along the shore of Lake Champlain has invited bow hunters in to thin the deer herd that lives among the mansions. Although the human population of Vermont is denser than that of central Asia, we have too many hoofed and antlered animals, not too few.
In the industrialized world, extinction takes other forms. Here, we no longer hunt species to extinction. Here we destroy habitat, wipe out food sources, spread disease and change the climate. In the Klamath River, along the Oregon-California border, 30,000 salmon have died of a parasite outbreak in recent weeks. Everyone agrees the outbreak is linked to warmer water temperatures in the river. Salmon fishermen say the Klamath River is warm because too much water has been diverted to irrigate inland farms. Farmers say the river is warmer because it’s – warmer. The planet is warming, the west is locked in a drought cycle and everything is just – warmer.
Pacific salmon, unlike the Asian saiga, are not in danger of becoming extinct in the next few years, but they may stop running in the Klamath River. That’s not extinction, but it is a clear warning. The Klamath once had the third largest run of Pacific salmon in the lower 48. Native Americans and fishermen rely on those fish for their livelihood.
The first blow to the salmon population came when irrigation dams were built across the Klamath. Salmon live in the ocean, but return to their birth streams to spawn. No spawning, no future generations. Still, some salmon returned to spawn in the lower reaches of the river. There the water was silted by topsoil runoff from logging operations and polluted with agricultural chemicals.
In the past few years, you may have noticed news articles about the irrigation waters of the Klamath. There has not been enough water to satisfy both the farmers’ desire for irrigation and the fishermen’s desire for a strong salmon run. The Clinton administration tended to side with the fishermen and restricted the water available for irrigation. This led to angry confrontations between farmers and water management officials. The Bush administration has tended to side with the farmers and the fishermen say this has led to the recent fish kills. Whether it was the dams, the water diversion or the global warming-induced drought, the Klamath salmon are endangered by human activity, just the same as the Asian saiga.
Manual Lujan, interior secretary under the first President Bush, once wondered if we need to save every species. We should at least try. You don’t have to be a militant animal rights activist to realize the interdependence of all life on Earth.
Eventually, one way or another, the species we save will be our own.