Biodiversity

NY Times Magazine Promotes GE Trees – We Set The Record Straight

May 4, 2020 Anne Petermann, Global Justice Ecology Project. Educate! Biodiversity, Forests, GE Trees, Media

An article printed in today’s New York Times Magazine, “Can Genetic Engineering Bring Back the American Chestnut?” by Gabriel Popkin, is a disappointing piece of questionable journalism. In this post, I highlight and challenge some of the most egregious statements in the article and question its advocacy for the idea that humans can and should use technology to “improve” nature. Note: Global Justice Ecology Project and our co-founders launched the first campaign to protect forests and communities from the risks of GE trees twenty years ago. Since then, the campaign has expanded globally and GJEP and other campaign members have testified at UN meetings, industry conferences and rural community workshops on five continents. Our advocacy and organizing to expose the potential dangers of GE trees led to a decision by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity warning countries of the risks of GE trees, as well as decisions by forest certification regimes like the FSC to prohibit the use of GE trees.

A Movement Builds To Support Wildlife In Human Spaces

April 30, 2020 April M. Short, Portside. Create! Biodiversity, climate crisis, Gardening, wildlife

The world’s wildlife is in danger of dying off, and inevitably taking humanity out with it. Humans have destroyed enormous portions of the planet’s natural spaces, and caused a climate disaster as well as the unprecedented acceleration of mass extinction events. Among the many species struggling to stay afloat are the butterflies, birds, bats, bees, and other pollinators we depend upon in order to grow basic food crops. People cannot live without the Earth’s diverse, wild plants and animals. Scientists agree that continued disruption of the Earth’s ecosystems threatens the future survival of humanity as much as climate change does. And, the two aren’t entirely separate issues; healthy forests and soil systems, for example, sequester carbon naturally. As they are destroyed, there is increased carbon in the atmosphere.

Worse Pandemics Are On The Way If We Don’t Protect Nature

April 28, 2020 Jordan Davidson, Ecowatch. Educate! Biodiversity, climate crisis, COVID-19, Pandemic

A group of biodiversity experts warned that future pandemics are on the horizon if mankind does not stop its rapid destruction of nature. Writing an article published Monday by The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the authors put the responsibility for COVID-19 squarely on our shoulders. "There is a single species that is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic – us. As with the climate and biodiversity crises, recent pandemics are a direct consequence of human activity – particularly our global financial and economic systems, based on a limited paradigm that prizes economic growth at any cost. We have a small window of opportunity, in overcoming the challenges of the current crisis, to avoid sowing the seeds of future ones," the authors wrote on IPBES.

Abrupt Ecosystem Collapse

April 17, 2020 Robert Hunziker, Counterpunch. Educate! Biodiversity, climate crisis, Ecosystems, Environmental Destruction

A new study in Nature (April 2020) casts a disturbing light on the prospects of abrupt ecosystem collapse. The report analyzes the probabilities of collapsing ecosystems en masse, and not simply the loss of individual species. (Source: Trisos, C.H. et al, The Projected Timing of Abrupt Ecological Disruption From Climate Change, Nature, April 8, 2020) The paper states that a high percentage of species will be exposed to harmful climate conditions at about the same time, potentially leading to sudden and catastrophic die-offs of biodiversity. If high greenhouse gas emissions remain in place, abrupt events are forecast to begin before 2030 in tropical oceans and spread to tropical forests and temperate regions over time. Without doubt, no nation is prepared for the consequences of collapsing ecosystems nor are they doing anything to avert it.

Society In Jeopardy: UN Report Details Humans Have Pushed One Million Species To The Brink Of Extinction

May 9, 2019 Alexandra Jacobo, Nationofchange.org Educate! Animals, Biodiversity, Environment, Extinction

"Society we would like our children and grandchildren to live in is in real jeopardy.""Society we would like our children and grandchildren to live in is in real jeopardy." The newest United Nations report on global biodiversity has officially been released and it solidifies what the initial draft warned: human exploitation of the environment has pushed one million plant and animal species to the brink of extinction. Conducted by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the report details findings conducted by a team of hundreds of experts from 50 nations.

Biodiversity Below Safe Levels Across More Than Half Of World

July 24, 2016 Adam Vaughn, www.theguardian.com Educate! Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Food and Agriculture, Sustainability

By Adam Vaughn for The Guardian. The variety of animals and plants has fallen to dangerous levels across more than half of the world’s landmass due to humanity destroying habitats to use as farmland, scientists have estimated. The unchecked loss of biodiversity is akin to playing ecological roulette and will set back efforts to bring people out of poverty in the long term, they warned. Analysing 1.8m records from 39,123 sites across Earth, the international study found that a measure of the intactness of biodiversity at sites has fallen below a safety limit across 58.1% of the world’s land. Under a proposal put forward by experts last year, a site losing more than 10% of its biodiversity is considered to have passed a precautionary threshold, beyond which the ecosystem’s ability to function could be compromised.

Seeds Of Suicide

May 23, 2016 Vandana Shiva, www.asianage.com Resist! Biodiversity, Environment, United Nations

By Vandana Shiva for The Asian Age - May 22 has been declared International Biodiversity Day by the United Nations. It gives us an opportunity to become aware of the rich biodiversity that has been evolved by our farmers as co-creators with nature. It also provides an opportunity to acknowledge the threats to our biodiversity and our rights from IPR monopolies and monocultures. Just as our Vedas and Upanishads have no individual authors, our rich biodiversity, including seeds, have been evolved cumulatively.

1 In 6 Species Could Disappear Due To Climate Change, Study Finds

May 2, 2015 Nick Visser, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Biodiversity, Climate Change, Environment

16 percent. Remember that number. If climate change continues unabated, 16 percent -- one in six -- plant and animal species will go extinct, according to a new study published in Science. The report, "Accelerating Extinction Risk From Climate Change," analyzed 131 other studies that diverged widely in their estimates of the rate of extinction that will occur if climate change continues unabated. Some of the underlying studies found that very few, if any, species would disappear, while others placed the number close to 54 percent. Humans still have time to prevent widespread extinction caused by climate change, but the window of opportunity is closing, said Mark Urban, a professor at the University of Connecticut and the study's lead author.

Great Barrier Reef Campaign: Scientists Against Coal Projects

March 23, 2015 Oliver Milman, www.theguardian.com Educate! Biodiversity, Coal, Environment, Ocean, Science

Australia’s leading coral reef scientists have called for huge coalmining and port developments in Queensland to be scrapped in order to avoid “permanent damage” to the Great Barrier Reef. The Australian Coral Reef Society (ACRS) report, compiled by experts from five Australian universities and submitted to the United Nations, warns that “industrialising the Great Barrier Reef coastline will cause further stress to what is already a fragile ecosystem.” The report notes that nine proposed mines in theGalilee Basin, in central Queensland, will produce coal that will emit an estimated 705m tonnes of carbon dioxide at capacity – making the Galilee Basin region the seventh largest source of emissions in the world when compared to countries. Climate change, driven by excess emissions, has been cited as the leading long-term threat to the Great Barrier Reef. Corals bleach and die as water warms and struggle to grow as oceans acidify.

On Columbus Day, Native Peoples Condemn GE Trees

October 13, 2014 Jay Burney and BJ McManama, www.stogetrees.org Organize! Biodiversity, Food and Agriculture, GE Trees

(Qualla Boundary, North Carolina)--In the shadow of Columbus Day and the legacy of colonization in the Americas, the Indigenous Environmental Network [1] and Eastern Band of Cherokee community members organized a gathering of Indigenous Peoples from across the Southeastern US for an historic Indigenous Peoples' action camp against genetically engineered trees (GE trees). Participants condemned GE trees as a form of colonization of the forest. The Indigenous Environmental Network Campaign to STOP GE Trees Action Camp focused on building an information-sharing and mobilization network of tribal representatives and community members to address the unique threats posed by GE trees to Indigenous Peoples, their culture, traditions and lifeways.

Do-It-Yourself Biodiversity

June 19, 2014 Terry Shistar, www.beyondpesticides.org Create! Biodiversity, DIY, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Gardening, Organic

Counteracting the threats to the biological communities that support life on Earth is a huge task, but there are also many ways in which we as individuals can make real contributions to preserving biodiversity. Conservation biologists have used the theory of island biogeography to develop strategies for preserving biodiversity. Small islands of habitat cannot support large predators, but they can provide refuges for smaller species, and many small islands can be strung together to support larger, mobile species. Almost all of us can help by creating islands of biodiversity wherever we live. Soil In land-based ecosystems, biodiversity begins with the soil. Recent science has shown that J.I. Rodale and other organic pioneers were right-- the soil is a living organism, and synthetic fertilizers and pesticides do kill the soil. The growth of all the plants we see above ground--from lettuce seedlings to redwood trees--results from a symbiosis between the plants and the fungi, bacteria, insects, and other soil-dwelling organisms. For a greater understanding of the microbial life in the soil, see Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis.

Think About Biodiversity Before You Flip That Switch

April 13, 2014 Staff, www.popularresistance.org Create! Biodiversity, Light Pollution

For three billion years now, life on this Earth has existed with a regular and dependable day-night schedule to the illumination levels in the environment. This regularity has become ingrained into the DNA of species up and down the evolutionary tree. It regularizes basic and fundamental biological activities across species from plants to us humans. It is the height of apathetic ignorance and insanity that we expect other living organisms on this planet to just "adapt" to newly created lighting schedules of our convenience. The effects of light pollution on plants and animals in the environment are numerous and are becoming more known. In general, the most common action is that light pollution alters and interferes with the timing of necessary biological activities.

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