Archive

Insects: you will miss them once they gone

80% of all different kinds of animals are insects. They maintain the world as we know it for without their ability to pollinate plants, our environment and our food supplies will collapse. It is therefore alarming that wherever scientists have looked, insect numbers and species are declining.

Yet insects were the first animals to colonise the land some 400 million years ago. Their decline is almost certainly due to loss of habitat in cutting down forests , converting grass lands to growing crops and above all, a changing climate.

To prevent further loss of species we have to reverse the loss in biodiversity by creating more habitats and limiting further changes in climate as quickly as possible.
[National Geographic Magazine, May 2020]

Loss of biodiversity and likely economic consequences

The loss of biodiversity is due to many factors including increasing population, increasing land use for growing crops, cutting down of forests, over fishing the oceans and changes in climate.

An in depth review led by Partha Dasgupta, University of Cambridge, has for the first time evaluated economically the benefits of biodiversity in its widest sense. In the past 20 years there has been a 40% reduction in the stocks of natural capital which include soil, air, water and all living things.

The reason for this reduction in natural capital is that almost all Governments have encouraged people to exploit nature rather protect it and this could result in collapse of entire eco systems thereby endangering both current and future generations.

Reversing the loss in biodiversity will require a shared understanding of how these systems work and a shared endeavour to reverse these losses

[Economics of Biodiversity – the Dasgupta review]

State of the Planet

On Tuesday 2^nd December, Antonio Guterres, the United Nations Secretary General, in a speech at Columbia University, New York, described the ‘The state of our planet as broken’. He continued that ‘humanity is waging war on nature and this is suicidal. Nature always strikes back and is now doing so with increasing force and fury. Biodiversity is collapsing, ecosystems are disappearing, deserts are spread and oceans are choking with plastic waste. Making peace with nature will be the defining task of the 21st century. The central objective of the UN in 2021 will be to build a truly global coalition to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Every country, city, town and company should adopt plans for the transition to net zero emissions. He urged everyone to take decisive action now and to reduce carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 compared with 2010 which would require a year on year reduction of 6%.
[webtv.un.org]

On the same day, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) released reports to which Guterres referred.

State of the global climate (WMO)

In spite of the C virus pandemic, greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise, not only carbon dioxide, but also concentrations of methane and nitrous oxides. Amongst other indicators of the changing climate were –

• 2020 was one of the 3 hottest years ever recorded
• The warmest six years have all been since 2014
• The past decade was the hottest in human history
• Ocean heat was at record levels inflicting harm on marine ecosystems
• Parts of the Artic experienced exceptional warmth some 5 C above the long term average
• Oceans were becoming more acidic

Petteri Taalas, Secretary General, WMO observed that the over riding concern is that carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for centuries and in the ocean, even longer. The last time the Earth experienced such carbon dioxide concentrations was 3 – 5 million years ago when the average global temperature was 2 -3 C hotter and sea levels some 10 – 20 metres higher.
[public.wmo.int]

State of knowledge on soil biodiversity (FAO)

A quarter of all species live in the ground beneath our feet and provide nutrients for all our food. The FAO authors observe that ‘soil organisms play a crucial role in our everyday life by working to sustain life on Earth. The available evidence indicates that a large proportion of the Earth’s surface has been degraded as the result of human activity. The main causes of damage are intensive agriculture, destruction of natural habitats and changes in climate. There was an ever increasing need to protect existing healthy soils and restore degraded soils.
[www.fao.org]