• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Environment

One Million Species Risk Extinction Due to Humans: Draft UN Report

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
April 23, 2019
in Environment, Featured
The Amazon rainforest in Brazil after clearcutting.

The Amazon rainforest in Brazil after clearcutting. Photo: AFP

16
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Up to one million species face extinction due to human influence, according to a draft U.N. report obtained by AFP that painstakingly catalogs how humanity has undermined the natural resources upon which its very survival depends.

The accelerating loss of clean air, drinkable water, CO2-absorbing forests, pollinating insects, protein-rich fish, and storm-blocking mangroves – to name but a few of the dwindling services rendered by Nature – poses no less of a threat than climate change, says the report, set to be unveiled May 6.

Indeed, biodiversity loss and global warming are closely linked, according to the 44-page Summary for Policy Makers, which distills a 1,800-page U.N. assessment of scientific literature on the state of Nature.

Delegates from 130 nations meeting in Paris from April 29 will vet the executive summary line-by-line. Wording may change, but figures lifted from the underlying report cannot be altered.

#UPDATE Map showing #biodiversity loss around the world compared to an intact ecosystem, measured as a percentage. https://t.co/BPHLu11xo1 #IPBES pic.twitter.com/Yp4ltY7Xq5

— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 23, 2019


“We need to recognize that climate change and loss of Nature are equally important, not just for the environment, but as development and economic issues as well,” Robert Watson, chair of the U.N.-mandated body that compiled the report, told AFP, without divulging its findings.

“The way we produce our food and energy is undermining the regulating services that we get from Nature,” he said, adding that only “transformative change” can stem the damage.

Deforestation and agriculture, including livestock production, account for about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions and have wreaked havoc on natural ecosystems as well.


‘Mass Extinction Event’ 

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services report warns of “an imminent rapid acceleration in the global rate of species extinction.”

The pace of loss “is already tens to hundreds of times higher than it has been, on average, over the last 10 million years,” it notes.

“Half-a-million to a million species are projected to be threatened with extinction, many within decades.”

Many experts think a so-called “mass extinction event” – only the sixth in the last half-billion years – is already underway.

The most recent saw the end of the Cretaceous period some 66 million years ago, when a 10-kilometer-wide asteroid strike wiped out most lifeforms.

Scientists estimate that Earth is today home to some eight million distinct species, a majority of them insects.

A quarter of cataloged animal and plant species are already being crowded, eaten or poisoned out of existence.

The drop in sheer numbers is even more dramatic, with wild mammal biomass – their collective weight – down by 82 percent.

Humans and livestock account for more than 95 percent of mammal biomass.


Population Growth 

“If we’re going to have a sustainable planet that provides services to communities around the world, we need to change this trajectory in the next ten years, just as we need to do that with climate,” noted WWF chief scientist Rebecca Shaw, formerly a member of the U.N. scientific bodies for both climate and biodiversity.

The direct causes of species loss, in order of importance, are shrinking habitat and land-use change, hunting for food or illicit trade in body parts, climate change, pollution, and alien species such as rats, mosquitoes and snakes that hitch rides on ships or planes, the report finds.

To solve climate change and biodiversity loss, we need a #GlobalDealForNature. Sign the petition calling on world leaders to come together to protect and restore half of nature. https://t.co/gKSp6h1x3d #EarthDay pic.twitter.com/tQn4Jziblk

— Leonardo DiCaprio (@LeoDiCaprio) April 22, 2019

“There are also two big indirect drivers of biodiversity loss and climate change – the number of people in the world and their growing ability to consume,” said Watson.

Once seen as primarily a future threat to animal and plant life, the disruptive impact of global warming has accelerated.

Shifts in the distribution of species, for example, will likely double if average temperatures go up a notch from 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) to 2C.

So far, the global thermometer has risen 1C compared with mid-19th-century levels.

The 2015 Paris Agreement enjoins nations to cap the rise to “well below” 2C. But a landmark U.N. climate report in October said that would still be enough to boost the intensity and frequency of deadly heat waves, droughts, floods, and storms.

The United States is the only nation that is not a signatory to the agreement.


Global Inequity 

Other findings in the report include:

– Three-quarters of land surfaces, 40 percent of the marine environment, and 50 percent of inland waterways across the globe have been “severely altered.”

– Many of the areas where Nature’s contribution to human wellbeing will be most severely compromised are home to indigenous peoples and the world’s poorest communities that are also vulnerable to climate change.

– More than two billion people rely on wood fuel for energy, four billion rely on natural medicines, and more than 75 percent of global food crops require animal pollination.

– Nearly half of land and marine ecosystems have been profoundly compromised by human interference in the last 50 years.

– Subsidies to fisheries, industrial agriculture, livestock raising, forestry, mining and the production of biofuel or fossil fuel energy encourage waste, inefficiency and over-consumption.

The report cautioned against climate change solutions that may inadvertently harm Nature.

The use, for example, of biofuels combined with “carbon capture and storage” – the sequestration of CO2 released when biofuels are burned – is widely seen as key in the transition to green energy on a global scale.

But the land needed to grow all those biofuel crops may wind up cutting into food production, the expansion of protected areas or reforestation efforts.


More on the Subject 

Thousands of German Teens Join Thunberg’s Climate Fight

Share6Tweet4
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

European Union flags
Environment

EU Okays Mega State Aid to Develop Electric Battery Giants

by Staff Writer
December 9, 2019
Windmill near the COP23 climate meeting in Bonn, Germany with coal plant in the background
Environment

Stakes are Global as Africa Faces ‘Climate Dilemma’

by Staff Writer
December 9, 2019
US President Donald Trump
Opinion

Climate Won’t Be Only Winner if Trump Repledges to Paris Agreement

by Kyle Hall
December 5, 2019
A child in New Delhi carries a placard as he participates in a school climate strike to protest against climate change
Environment

2010s Hottest Decade in History, UN Says as Emissions Rise Again

by Staff Writer
December 3, 2019
Israeli Occupation Costs Palestinian Economy $2.5 bn a Year: UN
Featured

Israeli Occupation Costs Palestinian Economy $2.5 bn a Year: UN

by Staff Writer
December 2, 2019
US President Donald Trump and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker at a G20 economic summit on July 8, 2017 in Hamburg, Germany.
Environment

US, EU ‘Owe Half The Cost’ of Repairing Climate Damage

by Staff Writer
November 25, 2019
Next Post
Mohammed bin Salman Saudi Prince

Saudi Arabia Executes 37 Citizens, Crucifies One for 'Terrorism'

A protester holding a placard reading 'Sex work is work' while marching through Soho, NY, United States

Sex Workers Need Decriminalization, Not Stigma

Recommended

Yemen to Become World’s Poorest Country if War Continues: UN

Democratic Leaders Turn Backs on Yemen in ‘Compromise’ Defense Bill

December 10, 2019
aung san suu kyi holocaust museum Elie Wiesel

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi Told to ‘Stop the Genocide’ in UN Court Showdown

December 10, 2019
Donald Trump holds a miner's helmet up after speaking during a rally

US, Saudi Rank Bottom of Climate Class: Report

December 10, 2019
US President Donald Trump

Democrats Announce Two Impeachment Charges Against Trump

December 10, 2019
stephen miller white nationalism

Democratic Senators Demand ‘White Nationalist’ Trump Advisor be Fired

December 9, 2019
Climate Change Poses ‘Lifelong’ Child Health Risk

Climate, Immigration Activists Join Forces Demanding ‘Just Transition’

December 9, 2019

Opinion

US President Donald Trump pauses while speaking about infrastructure at the Cameron LNG Export Facility on May 14, 2019

Why It Is Time for Trump to Forge a New Iran Deal

December 9, 2019
US President Donald Trump

Climate Won’t Be Only Winner if Trump Repledges to Paris Agreement

December 5, 2019
Police fires tear gas at protestors in Hong Kong.

Protests in Hong Kong: Media’s Portrayal Versus Firsthand Experience

December 4, 2019
From left to right: Sen. Cory Brooker, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders on the debate stage in Atlanta

Presidential Candidates: What’s Your Plan for Draining the Swamp?

December 2, 2019
US President Donald Trump

How Trump’s Policies Could Detonate the Middle East Powder Keg

November 27, 2019
Rohingya refugees wait for food distribution organized by the Bangladesh army at the refugee camp of Balukhali near Gumdhum

Can the International Community Save the Rohingya?

November 26, 2019
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post