Why we need to focus on the Ecological Crisis
Research has shown that a growing GDP cannot be decoupled from using Earth’s resources and environmental devastation. Each year, we are overshooting what Earth can regenerate earlier than previous years because our capitalist system requires increasing levels of overproduction and overconsumption which leads to excessive waste and pollution.
Even if we were running on 100% green energy, destroying ecosystems that we rely on for clean drinking water, nutritious food, and marine food will lead to uninhabitable Earth.
Read a roundup of the headlines:
“The cocktail of chemical pollution that pervades the planet now threatens the stability of global ecosystems upon which humanity depends, scientists have said...Plastics are of particularly high concern, they said, along with 350,000 synthetic chemicals including pesticides, industrial compounds and antibiotics. Plastic pollution is now found from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans, and some toxic chemicals, such as PCBs, are long-lasting and widespread...The study concludes that chemical pollution has crossed a “planetary boundary”, the point at which human-made changes to the Earth push it outside the stable environment of the last 10,000 years.”
The Guardian, Chemical pollution has passed safe limit for humanity, say scientists
“Nearly 21,000 monitored populations of mammals, fish, birds, reptiles and amphibians, encompassing almost 4,400 species around the world, have declined an average of 68% between 1970 and 2016, according to the World Wildlife Fund's Living Planet Report 2020. Species in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as global freshwater habitats, were disproportionately impacted, declining, on average, 94% and 84%, respectively.
CBS News, Animal populations worldwide have declined nearly 70% in just 50 years, new report says
“The ongoing sixth mass extinction may be the most serious environmental threat to the persistence of civilization, because it is irreversible. Thousands of populations of critically endangered vertebrate animal species have been lost in a century, indicating that the sixth mass extinction is human caused and accelerating. The acceleration of the extinction crisis is certain because of the still fast growth in human numbers and consumption rates. In addition, species are links in ecosystems, and, as they fall out, the species they interact with are likely to go also. In the regions where disappearing species are concentrated, regional biodiversity collapses are likely occurring. Our results reemphasize the extreme urgency of taking massive global actions to save humanity’s crucial life-support systems.”
PNAS, Vertebrates on the brink as indicators of biological annihilation and the sixth mass extinction
“The bonds that hold nature together may be at risk of unraveling from deforestation, overfishing, development, and other human activities, a landmark United Nations report warns. Thanks to human pressures, one million species may be pushed to extinction in the next few years, with serious consequences for human beings as well as the rest of life on Earth.
“The evidence is crystal clear: Nature is in trouble. Therefore we are in trouble,” said Sandra Díaz, one of the co-chairs of the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. A 40-page “Summary for Policy Makers” of the forthcoming full report (expected to exceed 1,500 pages) was released May 6 in Paris.’”
National Geographic, One million species at risk of extinction, UN report warns
“If we want to halt biodiversity loss, slow the deterioration of nature and meet biodiversity, climate and sustainable development goals by 2030, "business as usual" will not work and will instead drive societies and economies to more risks. While implementation of policy responses and actions to conserve and manage nature more sustainably has progressed, it has not progressed sufficiently to stem the direct and indirect drivers of nature deterioration. We need to put our societies on a transformative change through rapid and improved implementation of bold policy instruments, sustainable supply chains, and institutional innovation.
The main drivers appeared to be habitat loss and land conversion to intensive agriculture and urbanisation, followed by pollution, mainly from pesticides and fertilisers, invasive species and climate change.”
IPBES, IPBES GLOBAL ASSESSMENT REPORT
"The conclusion is clear," they wrote. "Unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades."
Phys.org, Insect apocalypse: German bug watchers sound alarm
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