Government views Monarch Butterfly Releases as a threat to We stern Milkweeds

[Mark Walker]

What has the (estimated) extinction rate been over the past 1000 years?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Patrick Foley [mailto:patfoley at csus.edu]
> Sent: Saturday, December 08, 2001 7:00 PM
> To: monarch at saber.net
> Cc: LEPS-L at lists.yale.edu
> Subject: Re: Government views Monarch Butterfly Releases as a 
> threat to
> Western Milkweeds


<snip>
> As often happens in environmentalist-development debates, one 
> side is not worried
> about cumulative impacts, because the immediate effects seem 
> so small. Lomborg, in
> his recent book the Skeptical Environmentalist, argues that 
> an extinction rate of
> 0.7% per 50 years is manageable and hardly worthy of 
> hysteria. To me, this
> extinction rate will lead to 13% of the species on earth 
> going extinct over the
> next 1000 years. (exp(-0.007*20 half-centuries)= 0.87). If 
> this doesn't trouble
> you, consider the results of another 6000 years of human 
> history. You should only
> worry about the environment if you are rooting, as I am, for 
> human civilization to
> last ... or at least start.
> 
> 
> Patrick Foley
> patfoley at csus.edu
> 
> 

 
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