Jake Johnson / Common
Dreams
MAY 06, 2019
A United
Nations report described as the most authoritative and comprehensive
assessment of global biodiversity ever published found that human exploitation
of the natural world has pushed a million plant and animal species to the brink
of extinction—with potentially devastating implications for the future of
civilization.
Conducted by the
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem
Services (IPBES) and released Monday, the report warned that species extinction
rates are “accelerating” at an “unprecedented” rate due to the human-caused
climate crisis and economic activity.
“The overwhelming evidence of
the IPBES Global Assessment, from a wide range of different fields of
knowledge, presents an ominous picture,” Sir Robert Watson, chair of the IPBES,
said in a statement. “The health of ecosystems on which we and all other
species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very
foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health, and quality
of life worldwide.”
While the report’s
findings—compiled by a team of hundreds of experts from 50 nations—are dire and
cause for serious alarm, Watson said, there is still a window for action.
“It is not too late to make a
difference, but only if we start now at every level from local to global,” said
Watson. “Through ‘transformative change,’ nature can still be conserved,
restored, and used sustainably—this is also key to meeting most other global
goals. By transformative change, we mean a fundamental, system-wide
reorganization across technological, economic, and social factors, including
paradigms, goals, and values.”
Eduardo Brondizio, co-chair of
the IPBES, echoed Watson, saying “business
as usual has to end.”
What are the 5 direct drivers
of change in nature with largest relative global impacts?
1: Change in land & sea use.
1: Change in land & sea use.
2: Direct exploitation of
organisms.
3: Climate Change
4: Pollution
5: Invasive Species.
— Newly launched @IPBES #GlobalAssessment #IPBES7
The IPBES report comes as
youth-led movements across the globe are organizing and taking to the
streets en masse to pressure political leaders to take climate action in line
with the urgency demanded by the scientific evidence.
Andrew Wetzler, managing
director of the nature program for the Natural Resources Defense Council
(NRDC), told the Washington Post that the IPBES assessment shows
“that nature is collapsing around us and it’s a real wake-up call to humanity.”
The average abundance of
native species in most major land-based habitats has fallen by at least 20
percent, mostly since 1900;
More than 40 percent of
amphibian species, almost 33 percent of reef forming corals, and more than a
third of all marine mammals are threatened;
The picture is less clear for
insect species, but available evidence supports a tentative estimate of 10
percent being threatened;
At least 680 vertebrate
species had been driven to extinction since the 16th century and more than 9
percent of all domesticated breeds of mammals used for food and agriculture had
become extinct by 2016, with at least 1,000 more breeds still threatened.
Andy Purvis, professor at the
Natural History Museum in London and one of the report’s main authors, said the
findings show that the “society we would like our children and grandchildren to
live in is in real jeopardy.”
“This is the most thorough,
the most detailed and most extensive planetary health check. The take home
message is that we should have gone to the doctor sooner. We are in a bad way,”
Purvis said. “I cannot overstate it. If we leave it to later generations to
clear up the mess, I don’t think they will forgive us.”
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