Humans Are Speeding Up Extinction
On Monday, the United Nations released a report stating humans are transforming Earth’s landscapes so dramatically that as many as one million plant and animal species are at risk for extinction. Global warming has become a major driver at wildlife decline, climate change is now pushing a growing number of species to extinction. According to United Nations report, it was stated that this means grave impact on people around the world is now likely. A few reasons as to why we are at this point now are due to the following: Overfishing, widespread use of pesticides, and the pollution & urban expansion in the natural world.Also, humans extract sixty billion tons from nature to satisfy demands worldwide, these harvesting are concluded to be unsustainable and very extreme. This situation is said to have gotten so bad that small efforts will not suffice, the government must make transformative changes if they want to save our planet. Nations have begun to recognize the threat of a failing ecosystem, and two high-level summits have already been scheduled for world leaders to discuss their conservation goals in 2020.
We cannot turn away from climate change, social consequences and political choices that are shaping the fate of our planet. There are over 5.5 million insect species that though we may not be fond of, we need them to pollinate crops and break down waste to enrich soil. We need to change our narratives and address our nation as a whole and fight to prevent or slow down climate change. Understanding the current biodiversity crisis from the perspective of deep time may help guide our efforts to conserve and restore ecosystems, some of which we need for our own survival.
For information on actions being taken by the global community to reach the 2030 United Nations goals for sustainable development please go to the following link: https://www.globalgoals.org/