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Ask HN: Is there any way to ACTUALLY stop biodiversity loss?
The amount of species disappearing every year is scary to think about, 100 to 1,000 times the natural rate. I'm aware of many of the causes, they have been written about extensively. However, the solutions proposed don't sound too convincing.
- chris_va 12y agoSome loss can be stopped with better enforcement of laws/treaties (e.g. overfishing, destruction of reefs, poaching). The countries most responsible (e.g. China) do not really care or do not have the resources to do enforcement. The US used to be in that boat, though is doing better this millennia. Some loss could be stopped by political means (e.g. capping greenhouse emissions), though honestly that will probably never happen in time for most species at risk. The human impact (e.g. trillions of dollars in loss, hundreds of millions displaced) will eventually push those policies, but it hasn't happened yet. The rest... we can try to sequence and re-introduce. We are unlikely to get to the majority of species, though, since somewhere between 1-500 go extinct each day.