Why our obsession with climate change may end up destroying biodiversity
Now, being green is all about greenhouse gases: Neighborhood moms are more apt to fret over food miles than felled forests; organic cattle farmers are more interested in offsetting the methane coming from cow burps than pondering squished tadpoles in hoof prints. Even scientists have grown bored with question of habitat loss, tweaking their grant proposals to emphasize the climate angle no matter how tenuous the connection. Saving the Amazon is so 1980s. Full Story »
Posted by Kaizar Campwala
Fighting global warming is more palatable environmental cause for our consumerist culture than "conservation" (e.g. stopping habitat destruction). The latter actually requires that we reduce our impact on the earth, rather than just switching up the Chevy Suburban for a Prius. Habitat destruction also carries with it all sort of moral dilemmas vis a vis poor people in the global south (see linked articles about the dieing giraffes and the Masai people who share their habitat).