The United Nations warned Monday against drastic losses in biodiversity unless immediate action is taken. The warning can be found in the Global Biodiversity Outlook 3 report, which is issued by two bodies of the UN. According to a story on YahooNews the report found that massive deforestation, pollution or exploitation, are damaging the earth’s natural productivity in some of the most vulnerable, and most valuable ecosystems.

Some of these ecosystem  are close to reaching  a “tipping point” beyond which they will not be able to repair themselves.  This all means more than just few species on the planet, it means a loss of ecosystems that are pivotal to the “natural systems that support lives and livelihoods,” says a more in-depth report from the Environmental News Service. Such as  many freshwater lakes, which are being taken over by algae due to a buildup of nutrients.  Too much algae will eventually kill off the lake, closing it off to recreational use as well as producing in a high fish kill, which is not only bad for the ecosystem, but for all the individuals whose livelihoods depend on those fish.

The report took in to consideration information collected from 110 nations, all of whom agreed in 2002 to significantly reduce the loss of biodiversity by 2010.  Not a single country met the deadline.

As a result “we continue to lose biodioversity at unprecedented rate,” Ahmed Djoghlaf, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, told journalists.

By Friday evening the news of this devistating report seemed to have lost most of it’s impact, at least on Twitter.  A few concerned and skeptical individuals were still spreading the story, though.

1. 
   JenHoward Were you feeling too cheerful? Extinction rates soar, UN fears irreversible damage to environment: http://bit.ly/b1AOFN (via @alexanderchee) 10 May 2010 from web
2. 
   euphoriaphotog Still want to argue that we’re not fucking up the planet? UN fears ‘irreversible’ damage to natural environment http://bit.ly/dntX24 #tcot 10 May 2010 from TweetDeck
3. 
   WayneMWilliams UN fears ‘irreversible’ damage to natural environment | Raw Story http://bit.ly/bARGPs Wake up people, we’re running out of time! 11 May 2010 from TweetMeme
4. 
   markmorford Wildly depressing UN report sees “irreversible damage to the natural environment.” Buncha hippies. http://bit.ly/9JxW3Q 11 May 2010 from bit.ly
5. 
   SAW921 I’m more than a little skeptical – UN fears ‘irreversible’ damage to natural environment: http://bit.ly/d0qm5W 11 May 2010 from web

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