Priorities

The International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) reports that 'Our oceans have reached such a critical state that we may see a mass extinction of marine species unparallelled in human history.' 'Overfishing, pollution, run-off fertilisers from farming and the acidification of the seas caused by CO2 emissions are combining to make oceans uninhabitable to marine creatures'. 'Previous mass extinctions ... have been linked to problems similar to those now facing the oceans - on which all life on the planet ultimately depends. But the oceans are now absorbing far higher levels of CO2 than they did during the wipeout of marine species that happened 55 million years ago.'

So there we are - we face mass extinction. Is this not more pressing than economic growth? Even if economic growth is really important, it can't be as important as facing mass extinction, can it?


The above quotations are from  an article in  The Week (2/7/11) which itself is based in an article in the Independent, which must have been based on the IPSO report.