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Over-hunting, over-fishing, and industrial-scale "mining" of natural resources have placed many species in peril. Three examples clearly show this damaging practice:
Over-harvesting of regional fisheries has driven several fish species to the brink of extinction-- from the once-fabled cod fisheries of Georges Banks to the abalone stocks in California-- and reduced the overall diversity of marine life.
Industrial-scale logging, for wood products and timber, destroys or fragments millions of acres of forests each year, along with the habitat they provide to many uniquely adapted species, such as the endangered red cockaded woodpecker, which lives in heavily exploited long-leaf pine forests in the Southeast US .
Over-hunting and illegal trade in endangered species are a prime threat to their survival. For instance, box turtles in the US are illegally collected and exported as pets, and, they die in the tens of thousands each year. These species are very slow to reproduce, and, in some populations, poaching has resulted in too few hatchlings surviving to offset adult mortality |
