Biodiversity

World Misses 2020 Biodiversity Goals

September 16, 2020 By Chloé Farand, Climate Change News. Create! Biodiversity, climate crisis, United Nations, Women

A draft version of the fifth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook, seen by Climate Home News, reported that none of the 20 Aichi biodiversity targets set in Japan in 2010 have been fully met. It identified failure to account for the role of women as a significant barrier to progress, along with funding shortfalls and harmful subsidies. Prepared by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the report provides a summary of the state of nature and biodiversity worldwide. The final report is due to be released next Tuesday after being reviewed by negotiators, with reflections on the way forward and how Covid-19 recovery packages could help achieve biodiversity goals. It comes as governments are preparing to adopt a new set of biodiversity targets beyond 2020 i

New Documentary By David Attenborough, ‘Extinction: The Facts’

September 15, 2020 Julia P. G. Jones, The Conversation. Educate! Biodiversity, Capitalism, Development, Extinction

We have learned so much about nature from David Attenborough’s documentaries over the past seven decades. In a new BBC film he lays bare just how perilous the state of that nature really is, why this matters for everyone who shares this planet, and what needs to change. This film is radical. Surprisingly radical. I have written in the past about my growing frustration with Attenborough documentaries continuing, decade after decade, to depict nature as untouched by any mark of humans. I felt this might be contributing to unhelpful complacency about how much “wild” was really left.

Reflecting On 12 Years In Palestine

August 31, 2020 By Mazin Qumsiyeh, Popular Resistance. Educate! Biodiversity, Human Rights, Israeli Apartheid, Palestine

In Palestine, I have split my time between working on human rights issues for Palestinians and working for the environment. These are not mutually exclusive as there is significant overlap. There are issues of colonizer assaults on the environment and environmental justice. There are issues of human sustainability and food security (dependent on the environment). Of course where and how we act evolves and changes in time. In those 12 years, I learned that our struggle as indigenous people in Palestine is connected to the struggle of indigenous people everywhere. I also learned that since the wealthy elites have no future for themselves without a healthy planet and a healthy planet depends on us indigenous people, the elites must learn to listen to us.

Tired Of ‘Writing Obituaries For Coral Reefs,’ Surfing Scientists Find Ways To Save Them

May 24, 2020 Raul Quintana, Conservation. Create! Biodiversity, climate crisis, Coral Reefs, Oceans

Grim reports and unsettling headlines paint a bleak future for Earth’s coral reefs, which are projected to be wiped out by the end of the century due to climate change and pollution. But a new study shows that this future can be prevented — and outlines the relatively small steps humanity can take to ensure coral reefs’ long-term protection and productivity. Building off of previous work, a group of marine scientists — all of them ardent surfers — identified the criteria that make a coral reef receptive to conservation. This research found that conservation efforts should focus on areas with low-to-medium human impacts on coral reefs, according to Jack Kittinger, a member of the research group and head of Conservation International’s global fisheries and aquaculture work.

‘No Mow May’ Campaign Asks Us To Leave The Lawn Alone To Help Save Bees

May 18, 2020 By Sara Burrows, Return to Now. Create! Biodiversity, Environment, Wildflowers

April showers bring May flowers, and if you like food, you should leave those flowers alone. Not mowing in May results in greater diversity and a number of flowers throughout the summer, a British wildlife organization called Plantlife claims. The organization conducted an experiment in last year in which hundreds of homeowners agreed not to mow their lawns until June. Participants’ lawns produced a much wider variety of flower species and enough nectar to feed 10 times as many bees as normal lawns. The longer your grass grows, the greater the diversity of flower species you get, Plantlife found.

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.

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