The Frankfurter School

The New York Times is breathlessly covering the latest mysterious disappearance in the animal kingdom with an article entitled “Bats Perish and No One Knows Why.” Regular readers of the Times will have also noted that just two weeks ago, the Chinook Salmon Disappear[ed] Without a Trace as well. And of course, everyone knows about the mysterious “Colony Collapse Disorder” that killed off massive numbers of bees last year and has still not been explained. Though that story was widely reported, the problem was mostly examined for its serious financial repercussions on business (as in Disappearing Bees Threaten Premium Ice Cream Market, or Honeybees Vanish, Leaving Keepers in Peril).

Other parts of the world have their localized horror stories as well. Londoners have been worrying for years about the disappearance of sparrows, a concern which is now moving on to continental Europe. And there’s lots of prominent coverage if you happen live near one of one hundred “dead zones” around the world, massive sections of oceans and seas rendered lifeless as a consequence of the chemicals used by industrial food production.

But the only reason that these particular stories have gotten the level of attention that they have, is because they have all been somewhat unexpected. The massive global extinction of up to 40% of the species on earth that is currently underway and largely predicted by scientists, is not getting much media attention. Perhaps this is because it is not related to a single problem that can be fixed, but rather by the systematic overlap of different causes, industries and lifestyles. Or perhaps because most of the problems are likely being caused by the advertisers that support the commercial news industry.

Exactly ten years ago, The Washington Post reported that scientists were largely in agreement that we were in the midst of the largest mass extinction this planet has seen since the dinosaurs stopped roaming the earth. That story was on page A4 of the Post, relegated to obscurity for the front page placement of news on President Clinton’s groundbreaking but unfunded needle exchange program proposal, and the relative weakness of the Shiites in unstable and ethnically torn Iraq, which Clinton would bomb by the end of that year.

In the ensuing decade, the Bush Administration, which has engaged in strict censorship of all government scientists since taking office, has made it increasingly difficult to even get species listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. And as reports of massive danger to species grow over these years, the species lost forever are growing less obscure and now threaten beloved tens of millions of birds, gorillas and chimpanzees, and of course, the Yangtze River Dolphin.

Further Resources:

massextinction.net

World Wildlife Fund

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