Cornwall Alliance

For the Stewardship of Creation

  • Home
  • About
    • Listen To Our Podcast “Created to Reign!”
    • Who We Are
    • What We Do
    • What Drives Us
    • Our History in Highlights
    • Cornwall Alliance Statement of Faith
  • Landmark Documents
  • Issues
  • Blog
  • Media
    • Press Releases
  • Shop
    • Books
    • DVDs
  • Contact
    • Challenging “Net-Zero”: Conquering Poverty While Stewarding the Earth in the Age of Climate Change
    • Summer Essay Contest!
    • Request a Talk Show Guest
    • Request Opinion Columns
    • Q&A Form
    • Request A Speaker
  • Donate
  • Get Our Newest Book: Climate and Energy: The Case for Realism

New UN Report on Looming Mass Extinctions Exposed in US House Testimony

by Gregory Wrightstone

May 25, 2019
Photo by Wade Lambert on Unsplash

A new UN report warns that “around 1 million species already face extinction, many within decades.” That allegation was contained within the 1,800-page Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) “Summary for Policy Makers,” released on May 6. If “decades” means 30 to 40 years, then the IPBES estimates an extinction rate of about 25,000 to 30,000 species annually. 

Not only are there a lot of species in peril, they asserted that “the threat of extinction is also accelerating” and “most of the total extinction risk to species is estimated to have arisen in the past 40 years.” 

The US House subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife convened a hearing on May 22 to review the contents of the report. Majority leader Jared Huffman (D) wasted no time in his opening remarks to make it clear that this was a politically driven hearing, not one necessarily searching for extinction truth. He contended “that despite the overwhelming evidence that we have an extinction crisis on our hands, the Trump Administration is going in the opposite direction to appease special interests and big donors.”

Fortunately, two of the six experts who were invited to testify presented damning evidence that completely contradicted the UN report’s findings of large and growing extinctions of species. Dr. Patrick Moore, Chairman of the CO2 Coalition and a founding member Greenpeace joined Marc Morano, Founder of Climate Depot in rebutting the findings of this latest climate apocalypse study.  

Dr. Moore began his statement by reading a laundry list of former similar claims of looming extinctions, all of which have proven incorrect with the passage of time. He also noted that there have been less than 900 extinctions documented in the last 500 years according to the IUCN Red List, which catalogues every known species that has gone the way of the dodo and the carrier pigeon.

He went on to reveal that the IPBES report claimed that there were 8 million species on Earth, “yet only 1.8 million species have been identified and named. Thus, the IBPES believes that there are 6.2 million unidentified and unnamed species.” In what was likely the understatement of the day, Moore called that claim “highly unprofessional.”

In his opening remarks, Marc Morano launched a withering attack on the United Nations and its attempts to influence world opinion based on sometimes faulty science. He called the latest report “a very thinly veiled attempt to hype and distort biodiversity concerns” and, pulling no punches stated “it’s the latest UN appeal to give it more money, more power, more scientific authority and more regulatory control of the economy and peoples’ lives.”

In his written testimony, Morano relied heavily on a recent analysis that I wrote exposing the scientific dishonesty and data manipulation that the UN used to arrive at their outrageous claims of tens of thousands of extinctions per year. In my review of the UN report, I found that they had used the IUCN Red List to create an ominous and frightening chart of steeply increasing extinctions since the year 1500 AD. Closer analysis revealed that they had lumped the data into only five data points of 100 years each. My reevaluation of the data in ten-year increments showed a very different story, a significant and steep decline of extinctions since a peak in the late 19th and early 20thcenturies.

Recall that the UN projections were for more than 20,000 extinctions per year beginning quite soon unless we change our evil ways and reduce our consumption of fossil fuels. The Red List data and my analysis revealed some very inconvenient facts about recent extinctions; in the last 40 years, the average annual extinction rate was two per year. Not 2,000. Not 200. Two. The most recent decadal data available was from 2000 to 2009 and only four extinctions were reported in that time frame. 

This new extinction study is just the latest example of the rampant misuse and abuse of the scientific process designed to sow fear of an impending climate apocalypse. The fear and alarm over purported man-made catastrophes are needed to frighten the population into gladly accepting harmful and economically crippling proposals such as the Green New Deal. 

Rather than an Earth spiraling into a series of climate catastrophes that threaten the planet’s life, we find that our planet and its estimated 1.8 million species are doing just fine, thank you.

[This article was first published at Townhall.com and is reprinted here by permission of the author.]

Dated: May 25, 2019

Tagged With: Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, IPBES, IPBES Global Assessment, Patrick Moore, species extinction, US House subcommittee on Water Oceans and Wildlife
Filed Under: Biodiversity & Endangered Species, Bridging Humanity and the Environment

About Gregory Wrightstone

Gregory Wrightstone is author of the new book, “Inconvenient Facts: The Science That Al Gore Doesn't Want You To Know.” Wrightstone is a geologist with more than 35 years of experience researching and studying various aspects of the Earth's processes. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Geological Society of America, and a Contributor to the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Listen To Our Podcast


Available to listen on these platforms:

Spotify
Amazon Music
Apple Podcast
Google Podcast
Stitcher

Future Speaking Engagements

June 18-21, 2025–Dallas, TX

Cornwall Alliance will be a host of the Association of Classical Christian Schools’ (ACCS) annual Repairing the Ruins conference in Dallas, TX, and will have an exhibit booth.

Details and registration can be found HERE.

September 19-20–Arlington, VA

Dr Beisner will represent the Cornwall Alliance at the fall meeting of the Philadelphia Society and will have a literature table.

Attendance is for Society members and invited guests only. To inquire about an invitation, email Dr. Cal Beisner: Calvin@cornwallalliance.org.

September 26-27– Lynchburg, VA

Dr. Beisner will be speaking at the Christian Education Initiative Annual Summit, “Advancing Christ’s Kingdom Through Biblical Worldview Education.” 

Details and registration can be found HERE.

Are Science & Religion in Conflict?

Join Our Email List

Select list(s) to subscribe to


By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

Recent Stewards Blog Posts

  • GAO Questions Biden’s Offshore Wind Effort, Vindicates Critics
  • India Spurns Carbon Tax Threat, Promotes Trade and Fossil Fuels
  • Energy Heresy: Why America Must Exit the Green Delusion
  • Financials Shift from ‘Green’ Agenda to Greenbacks
  • What Really Drove Skyrocketing Egg Prices?

Top 40 Global Warming Blog by Feedspot

Search

Listen to Our Podcast

Available to listen on these platforms:

Spotify
Amazon Music
Apple Podcast
Google Podcast
Stitcher



Copyright © 2025 · Cornwall Alliance · 875 W. Poplar Avenue Suite 23-284, Collierville, TN 38017 · Phone: (423) 500-3009

Designed by Ingenious Geeks & John A. Peck · Log in