G. Bailey's letter in today's South China Morning Post.
I'd been doing a bit of fact checking myself in the IPBES claim of species loss. It hasn't seemed credible according to the "common sense test". And indeed it wasn't. Bailey quotes 8 million extant species. But that's the bottom end according to my research, which suggests there are up to 100 million species on the earth with as many being created as lost. Not to downplay the concerns, but let's not get freaked out about them either.
Bailey mentions the rehabilitation of nature and a few weeks ago I posted a story that the earth is getting greener, with more trees, because of replanting programs in India and China.
I'm constantly amazed at how people rush to cries of "the sky is falling" at every pronouncement from the United Nations. The IPCC, for example, has several times overshot on projections of warming.
And again some of the good intentions have unanticipated bad outcomes, like growing biofuels to replace petroleum destroying primates' living space, mentioned by Bailey. Or shutdown of nuclear plants because of scare tactics in the wake of a Fukushima. Germany and Japan both have more greenhouse aide of these silly decisions.
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