Seeing red

Richard Black on the bleak outlook for mammals

More than 8,000 conservationists and policy makers are in Barcelona, Spain, for the IUCN World Conservation Congress.

Held once every four years, the gathering is viewed as a landmark event where future conservation strategies are developed.

In his daily diary, environment correspondent Richard Black reports on the topics beings discussed in the conference halls, and visits some of the fringe events.

They are all saying things that in their own way are quite sensible.

We have heard it before - the message of environmental doom is very familiar to anyone who reads further than Heat magazine and the immigrant-petrified middle tabloids.

The implications of biodiversity loss are nebulous next to a train crash, disaster seems hard to credit when our cat is well fed and the car works, and there probably is nothing that we can do.

Demise of the devils and other mammals under threat

In pictures

So does that mean it is not worth hearing that 25% or 30% or 12% or 45% of one or other group of species is heading down the path to extinction?

If I was about to be hit over the head with a large stick, I would prefer to know.

If a quarter of the world's mammals are heading for the mortuary drawer, again, I would like to know, even though I might not have a clue how to stop it.

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