Mr. Speaker, when I was interrupted for question period, I had a few minutes left to conclude my presentation. I would like to discuss the current situation of our planet.
Indeed our planet today is shrinking. The forests of the Amazon are disappearing daily while fires are raging. There are clear-cuts with the encroachment of farms and human activity. The jungles of Asia, once the habitat of wildlife of immense diversity, are also shrinking and disappearing. I mentioned earlier in my speech how the Indian tiger is almost a relic of history due to encroachment of human activity.
Our forests worldwide are disappearing to the tune of 25 million acres a year. Desertification is occurring at a pace of 15 million acres a year. The deserts in Africa, Asia and South America are gaining ground. Even on our own North American continent in the United States southwest lands are drying up. Recently in Saskatchewan and Alberta we have had droughts and land that is becoming more and more attacked by global warming. In Canada alone 10 million hectares of forests have been clear-cut over the last decade.
All this means that the more we encroach on nature, the more wildlife disappears. This is the object of the bill, to decide choices. Do we want nature to be obliterated so that eventually human habitat, tar and gravel, roads and transportation, and more pollution takes place or do we want to preserve habitats, ecosystems that sustain living species and wildlife which are part of what we mean by quality of life?
The question we should conclude this debate with about endangered species is: What would be our planet without the wildlife species and the habitats and ecosystems that sustain their living? I believe it would be a poorer Earth. I believe that the human beings who inhabit this Earth would be the poorer for their absence.
I know that the endangered species bill is not the acme of all legislation. It has its faults. It is not as strong as many of us would wish. At the same time I suggest that it is a definite step forward. That is why yesterday I was pleased to vote for it and I will do so again today at third reading.