then why don't we just make more species?"
thinkabit,
Apparently, there's already someone doing that !

Banjo wrote :"You’re quite right, mhaze"

Well done. Its rare on these pages that someone owns up to their errors.

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"I was reading the report in French ...."

You can never trust the French.

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"I’m rather dubious of your interpretation of “short term” meaning 50 years. "

Well the report doesn't define it but it does say 'the coming decades'. If they mean something less than 50 years it just makes their numbers even more absurd.

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"..but I can’t help thinking it’s the sort of thing climate deniers have been saying for years about global warming. Perhaps you could provide a little more information"

First, I point out that using the term "climate denier" labels you as a team player, more interested in the propaganda than the facts. Climate alarmism was always based on models.
As to this issue, it seems rather obvious that it is based on modelling. If there are 10 million species but only 2 million described, then the only way to determined the 'threatened' status of the other 8 million is via models. You can't decide if a particular species is threatened if it isn't even defined, n'est pas?
IPBES actually wrote a report on modelling..."Methodological Assessment Report on Scenarios and Models of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services"

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"You say : “they have been making it up for decades”, "

It was a more general 'they'. Yes the IPBES is recent but it is comprised of people who've been in the game for decades. It goes all the way back to E.O.Wilson's 1980s claim which he finally had to withdraw a decade later as mere guesses.

"Are you suggesting that the whole thing is just a vast hoax to swindle money "

No. As with climate, I'm sure these people sincerely believe their models and that they are doing God's work. They convince themselves that their models are the real world. OTOH I'm sure that, as with climate, there are few charlatans who know that the only way to further their case (and career) is to create "scary scenarios" to frighten the public.

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Dear mhaze,

.

I wrote :

« I was reading the report in French »

And you replied :

« You can never trust the French »
.

Unfortunately, there are many people one can never trust in this world, but it has nothing to do with nationality (remember ScoMo and the French submarines).

No, it has nothing to do with the French. It was my fault and my fault alone.
.

Many thanks for your explanation regarding research based on modeling which I understand and appreciate. It’s obvious that given the immensity of the task of dressing the inventory of all living species on planet earth, it would take more than 4 years for those 85 experts to accomplish it, even if they worked day and night.

I doubt that I could count the total number of ants correctly in just one ant heap, let alone the total number of ants on every inch of the planet – nor the total population of earthworms hiding under the surface of the ground, every blade of grass, every tree, every shrub, and flower.

Every ant, every earthworm, every sparrow, and every frog looks exactly the same to me. I’d probably count the same ones several times and others never.

And yet, the 85 experts would have had to repeat that same operation several times over the 4-year period in order to measure the evolution of the 8 to 10 million species on earth and calculate the rate of extinction or proliferation of each species.

So, as a physical inventory is impossible, I guess they had to decide either to give up or find another method.

If I understand correctly, statistical modeling based on a random selection of sample data, which you consider to be non-representative of reality, was apparently the best they could do.

Let’s call it “an intelligent guess” and treat it as such. Maybe it’s better than nothing and, hopefully, they might be able to improve the model as time goes by.

It should get easier and more accurate as more and more species become extinct.

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Banjo Paterson, when you hire a bunch of activists to do the research you get such a result, which was what you paid for.

Foxy for heavens sake stop posting links to such biased rip off merchants as the Wilderness Society. It degrades your posts.

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Dear Hasbeen,

.

You describe the experts of the IPBES as “a bunch of activists”.

I checked out half a dozen of them at random. All six appear to be reputable scientists so far as I can judge. I have not found anything to suggest that any of them are “activists”, but if you have any probative evidence to the contrary perhaps you would be kind enough to share it with me.

Here is the list with a brief bio for each expert :

1. Julia Marton-Lefèvre (France) :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Marton-Lef%C3%A8vre

2. Carolyn Lundquist (New Zealand) :
http://www.iai.int/admin/site/sites/default/files/Escola%20SP%202019%20-%20Bio%20-%20Carolyn%20Lundquist.pdf

3. Youngbae SUH ((Republic of Korea)
http://2012congress.iucn.org/cmsdata.iucn.org.iucn.vm.iway.ch/downloads/suh_youngbae___bio.pdf

4. Asghar FAZEL (Iran) :
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Asghar_FAZEL1_s2.jpg

5. Simon Ferrier (Australia) :
http://people.csiro.au/F/S/Simon-Ferrier

6. Mary Rowen (USA) :
http://seas.umich.edu/ecomgt//events/bios/rowen.htm
.

If, by chance, these six do not happen to be among the “bunch of activists” you have in mind, perhaps you could point out the ones you do know about. Here is the complete list of the 85 IPBES experts :

http://ipbes.net/experts?field_government_target_id=All&field_deliverable_target_id=All&page=0

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"If we keep on accelerating natural extinction rates
due to our role in habitat loss, pollution, de-forestation,
spreading disease, population growth,, et cetera. Things
will only get worse."

Things are guaranteed to get worse.
They are already promoting eating insects, what do you think is going to happen?

I predict the poor will eat kangaroo, possums, koalas, and wombats before they succumb to house crickets protein.

- Just keep increasing the immigration rates and I promise it won't be long before Aussies are eating ALL the marsupials to extinction.