From SaveBelmarPark.com

Because “biological annihilation” is happening NOW according to Stanford biologists Paul Ehrlich, Rodolfo Dirzo and colleague Gerardo Ceballos.  Key quotes from the paper:

“Earth’s sixth mass extinction episode has proceeded further than most assume.”

• “The window for effective action is very short, probably two or three decades at most.”
• “Wildlife abundance on the planet decreased by as much as 58% between 1970 and 2012.”
• “This biological annihilation underlines the seriousness for humanity of Earth’s ongoing sixth mass extinction event.”
• The scientists document “a massive anthropogenic erosion of biodiversity and of the ecosystem services essential to civilization.”
• “The massive loss of populations is already damaging the services ecosystems provide to civilization.”
• “Wildlife in Africa is disappearing at a horrific rate. There is perhaps 1/10 of 1% of the wildlife in Africa as there was 200 years ago.” Lawrence Frank Ph.D. at 53:50 in presentation on African wildlife conservation as a field biologist.

What is Lakewood City Council doing locally to help the planet deal with this crisis?

Lakewood’s answer is to ignore science and promote luxury housing that will harm a riparian habitat while citing the fake ‘housing shortage’.

Yet the city council wants everyone to think there is not enough housing for a ‘growing’ population.  City council, when does your denial of reality cross the line from being misinformed to being blatantly dishonest?

The county has lost 4% of population in 4 years.  The local school district has closed 21 schools since 2021.  School buildings are actually up for sale in Lakewood.   Lakewood’s housing pipeline already has a 10-15 year supply based on the city’s own study!  Zillow shows over 1,500 rentals advertised in Lakewood today including hundreds of units within walking distance of Belmar Park.

Council members, if this summation is not correct, then please explain why you refuse to protect habitats including Belmar Park.  Eminent domain is at your service if needed.

Yes, the Kairoi Belmar housing project, as planned without a science-based raptor buffer zone, will harm the rare riparian wildlife habitat at Belmar Park.

Lakewood City Council cannot fix a global problem.  But they can show leadership and be a model for how cities can play an important role.

City Council, please do not take comfort just because you are not alone in participating in the sixth mass extinction event and stealing from the future of our children.

Lakewood, this is exactly how to give the children a planet struggling to support human life.  Or worse.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife recommends a raptor buffer zone at Belmar park based on ‘best available science’!  

Is that too much to ask?

Some might say why worry?  There is plenty of wildlife in Africa, so let’s eat, drink and be merry and forget about protecting habitats here.  The planet is too big for humans to ever ruin it.

Unfortunately, Dr. Lawrence Frank is quoted above regarding the ‘horrific’ loss of wildlife in Africa over the last 200 years.

He spent decades tracking and studying lions in Africa.  He started back before GPS tracking collars for lions were even available.  

Back then, once you had a collar on a lion, you had to drive around off road in Kenya to try and get in radio range of the collars using a YAG antenna to track and count the animals.  He told me bouncing around on that terrain was very hard on his back.  

He explains during the Q&A at the end of the video that as humans continue to encroach on habitats in Africa, what wildlife still remains has a very uncertain future.

Dr. Ehrlich’s paper points out that species extinctions over the last 200 years should have taken 10,000 years!

What is happening is a global crisis.  Protecting habitats will be the best and probably the only way out of it.

Some might cite the recent example of the dire wolf that was supposedly extinct but brought back to life via genetic engineering by a company called Colossal Biosciences.  The hope the company was claiming is that other species could be resurrected from extinction using the same technology.  

But the company’s chief scientist has now admitted just a few weeks ago the animal was not a true dire wolf but simply a grey wolf with a few modified traits to make it resemble the appearance of a dire wolf.

Humans make up less than 0.5% of the total biomass of the planet, yet we are responsible for the ongoing 6th extinction event.  

Wild mammals make up even less of the total biomass than we do!

It is up to us stop it.  

The Ehrlich paper explains that ecosystem services essential to civilization are already being eroded and damaged.

There are 20 to 30 years at most to stop the mass extinction event.

It is time to wake up.  That includes you, City Council.  Wake up.   You are responsible for protecting habitats in Lakewood.  Please do your job for the sake of your own children.

Thanks for listening,

Steve