USFWS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center finds that manatees "cannot sustain the increasing death toll exacted yearly by boats and personal watercraft in much of Florida" says the Bradenton Herald 4/30/03. "Already facing population losses due to slow reproductive rates," the report warns that "in the absence of any new management action," that reduces increasing mortality from speed boats, manatees in the state face a "dire" situation, "with no chance of meeting recovery criteria within 100 years."

Sea otter deaths linked to pollution-caused disease.   A new study by the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center has linked the mysterious die-off of sea otters to parasites and infectious diseases caused by pollution streaming into the ocean (article in L.A. Times 5/6/03).   The study looked at the cause of sea otter deaths from 1998 to 2001, but did not include the record 105 deaths discovered on central California beaches so far this year. "We're seeing the same kind of infections, but just more of it" said the USFWS.

Birds on the road to extinction.  According to Worldwatch Institute figures, over 100 species of birds have become extinct in the last 200 years.  At the present rate, they predict 1200 more bird species will be gone before the end of this century.  Habitat destruction, especially deforestation, appears to be the major cause.  The use of agricultural and industrial poisons is also a factor, of course.
All stem from human proliferation and greedy, as opposed to wise, use of the earth's resources.

Threat to planetary health increasing.   The SARS virus is just the latest of the growing number of new diseases threatening life on earth.  Outbreaks of BSE ("mad cow"), West Nile virus, hanta viruses, ebola, and numerous other previously unidentified diseases including those abetted by human activity, e.g. anthrax, foot and mouth, calciviruses, are destroying  the balance of life and gaining ever larger footholds on our sickening planet.  Changes in nature used to evolve slowly, but human activity has accelerated changes so that they occur too rapidly for existing fauna and flora to make adjustments.  Genetically engineered plants and animals create new conditions almost instantly.  The widespread use of poisons has resulted in their presence everywhere.
        Here at the Civitas Sanctuary the once deafening spring frog chorus has degenerated to a plaintive peep here and there.  The air and woods are no longer busy with birds. This land has never been treated with chemicals, but their poisons are so pervasive that they have rained down from above or been blown in by the wind threatening the survival of the most vulnerable species everwhere.