Did you know that biodiversity and climate crisis are intricately connected? The UN calls biodiversity our strongest natural defense against climate crisis. Life on Earth depends on ecosystems that rely on a thriving biodiversity. Healthy ecosystems provide us with food, water, medicine and a stable climate.
Perhaps the economic cost of biodiversity loss will surprise you. Over half of global GDP is dependent on Nature. Shocks to the global economy related to biodiversity loss and ecosystem damage could cost upwards of $5 trillion, according to new research from Oxford University.
But it’s not just about economics. The continuing deterioration of biodiversity and climate threatens all life on Earth. Nature is in crisis. According to the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), extinction rates are increasing. 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, said IPBES Chair, Sir Robert Watson.
Up to one million species are threatened with extinction. Parts of the Amazon rainforest, an irreplaceable ecosystem, are no longer carbon sinks, but carbon sources as a result of deforestation. Most of our wetlands, such as salt marshes and mangrove swamps, which absorb large amounts of carbon, have disappeared.
Human activity has already altered over 70 per cent of all land. Our demand for food production, raw materials, and buildings has created habitat loss, the leading cause of species extinction. Conserving and restoring natural spaces, and the biodiversity they contain, is essential for limiting emissions and adapting to climate impacts. Or we could just go on with business as usual and suffer through increasingly violent and deadly storms, extreme heat waves, and unhealthy air quality.
How climate crisis affects biodiversity
We are in the midst of the first climate caused extinction. Climate crisis is causing a disastrous decline in biodiversity. Climate crisis is destroying ocean, land and freshwater ecosystems all over the world. It has caused local species loss, an increase in diseases, and mass mortality of plants and animals. The risk of species extinction increases with every degree of warming.
What you can do
- Join our Biodiversity Group
- Plant native trees, shrubs and perennials in your garden and community spaces
- Stop using pesticides on your property
- Talk to your family, friends and neighbors about this issue
- Remove invasive species from your property
- Opt out of the extractive and exploitative consumer culture
- Join the Rights of Nature movement
- Support local initiatives working to protect threatened habitats
- Contact your local politicians and demand immediate action
- Advocate to protect endangered plants and animals
- Volunteer with or donate to local groups working to protect biodiversity (like us!)
- Contact us at [email protected] to get involved
- Please help me to inform people by sharing this blog widely.
Climate crisis and biodiversity loss has changed the world. We no longer have a stable climate. If we want to continue living on this planet, we will have to change too. We can’t continue to live the way we’ve been living. The consumer society has to end, agriculture has to shift to regenerative farming, we have to change our energy sources, and we have to adapt to a new lifestyle. Although that may sound horrific, we could actually be happier with a new way of being in the world. To find out how, go to Transition Town Greater Media.
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