The UN has published a report containing an existential warning of the extinction of natural species and the threat to human life:
“BIODIVERSTY LOSS IS AS GRAVE AS CLIMATE CHANGE. We solve both or we solve neither” said Robert Watson, the chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), continuing: “The health of the ecosystems on which we and other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide,”. “We have lost time. We must act now.”
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) report shows a strong interrelationship between climate change, the loss of biodiversity and human well-being. Climate change has been identified as a primary driver of biodiversity loss, already altering every part of nature. Likewise the loss of biodiversity, as when we destroy forests, we contribute to climate change.
The main headlines are that 1,000,000 species are threatened with extinction; Nature’s Dangerous Decline is ‘Unprecedented’; The current global response is insufficient; and ‘Transformative changes’ are needed to restore and protect nature.
This is a UN report on the health of nature across the whole Earth and many of the reports will be on exotic elephants, coral reefs, rainforests or oceans – BUT the UK is one of the most nature depleted countries of all (from WWF)
There is much media on this important subject: on video (from CNN), in summary (from the Guardian), in five graphics and article (from the BBC), in fact/evidence and solutions (from Friends of the Earth), in depth (from Greenpeace), in comment (from the Guardian) and in hope (from Nature magazine). Chris Hogg
The good news is that we still have time to change things. BUT this time is limited.
