And Biodiversity

From the opening of their joint workshop report, selected IPBES and IPCC experts, stated
(emphasis added):

Climate change and biodiversity loss are two of the most pressing issues of the Anthropocene.

This open-source information site, And Biodiversity, aims to serve as a resource to study the latter crisis which often runs silent, invisible, and in the background to the general public.

For any explanation, citation, or justification regarding biodiversity loss, bookmark this site and return to review the topic, major reports, figures, quotes, and resources.

OVERVIEW

Learn the what, who, when, where, why, and how about biodiversity loss

REPORTS

Review past and present global reports on biodiversity loss

FIGURES

Visually study report graphics to learn the extent of biodiversity loss

QUOTES

Listen to experts and cite lines from major reports about biodiversity loss

RESOURCES

Dive into news, data, research, and initiatives related to biodiversity loss

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In our silent and invisible background, biodiversity and ecosystems provides essential services through Nature’s Contribution to People.

Regulation of Environmental Processes

Materials and Assistance

Non-Material and Other

Source: IPBES 2019 Global Assessment (Fig. 1)

But human activities are rapidly degrading biodiversity and ecosystems at an unprecedented level through five key direct drivers:

Source: IPBES 2019 Global Assessment (Vimeo video)

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To resolve biodiversity loss, environment considerations must be mainstreamed across domains:

Media

“We continue to provide the latest coverage on politics, the economy, and the environment including climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss.”

Politics

“Balanced budget, economic growth, infrastructure, healthcare, immigration, climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss are all on the ballot this election.”

Business

“We forecast in next fiscal year losses due to inflation, supply chain, taxation, debt restructuring, pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss.”

Education

“Class, following math and reading we will continue our lesson on the environment with issues very important to the Earth: climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss.”

Activism

“End Global Inequality and Extreme Poverty! Save our planet from Disease and Pollution! Stop Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss!”

Civil Society

“You know I’m really starting to worry about the economy, political division, healthcare, climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss.”

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With its underlying drivers of land/sea use, climate, and pollution, biodiversity loss intersects with the other planetary boundaries that have transgressed safe operating limits in the Earth System:

Source: Stockholm Resilience Centre Planetary Boundary Framework (2022)

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But nature-based solutions (NbS) can simultaneously solve biodiversity loss and other environmental crises:

Heatwaves

Climate change causes prolonged and intense heatwaves, and biodiversity with transpiration of trees and plants can bring a coolness and reduce urban heat island effects.

Flooding

Climate change causes more extreme weather events, and biodiversity with healthy rivers, wetlands, and coral reefs across coastlines and floodplains can absorb and buffer storm surges and flooding.

Flooding

Land degradation and soil pollution cause more crop yields to decline, and biodiversity with rich soil organisms can regulate and regenerate soil health and stabilize food supply with diverse crops and livestock.

Drought

Land use changes and climate change cause more widespread droughts, and biodiversity with healthy freshwater and vegetative cover can regulate water quality, flow, supply, and enhance groundwater systems.

Pests

Global trade and changing ecosystems cause spread of invasive pests and diseases, and biodiversity with native and diverse species in place of non-native, monocultures can mitigate prevalence of such pests and diseases.

Wildfires

High temperature and dry conditions increase fire seasons and wildfires, and biodiversity with diverse forests in genes and species can spread risk, increase resistance to stresses, and promote resilience to forest systems.

Emissions

Industries and agriculture contribute to air pollution and carbon emissions, and biodiversity with healthy forests, wetlands, mangroves, seagrass, and other biomes can naturally capture and sequester carbon and toxic particulates.

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Why And Biodiversity? To underscore its importance in many human contexts:

Economy

Modern economies often measure the accumulation of produced capital (roads, machines, buildings, factories, and ports) and human capital (health and education) but overlook natural capital and biodiversity provides such value with raw materials, resources, and regulation of environment that support commerce and livelihoods.

Society

A society free from conflict, inequality, and uncertainty requires a stable climate and healthy ecosystems for basic amenities, occupations, and recreation, and biodiversity supports such requirements through functioning carbon, nitrogen, and water cycles and habitat maintenance.

Culture

Since the dawn of human civilization, species and ecosystems have been integral in human cultures including languages, arts, foods, customs, beliefs, and values and biodiversity (akin to human diversity) serves as this living library and heritage.

Health

Physical, mental, and social health and well-being require a stable climate and healthy ecosystems and biodiversity serves these needs with air, water, and food quality; medicinal supply; hazard and disease protection; recreation and inspiration.

Infrastructure

Robust critical infrastructure of water, energy, food, and commodity supply requires vital inputs and biodiversity provides water flow and quantity; food pollination and seed dispersal; and natural resources for fiber, fuel, and timber.

Survival

Essential human survival needs of air, water, food, and shelter requires a stable climate and healthy ecosystems and biodiversity provides such habital existence for humans and many other species.

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Why And Biodiversity? To dispel common misunderstandings:

Biodiversity loss is not as immediate an issue as climate change.

Although the media and general public overlook biodiversity loss for various reasons, scientists have consistently asserted the devastating consequences of continued loss of biodiversity which is accelerating at unprecedented levels in human history.

Such loss negatively impacts ecosystem services such as life-critical needs of food production, soil formation, water availability, air quality, climate regulation, medicines, and still others. See Reports discussing this crisis over the last 50 years.

Source: Nature.com article

Climate change encompasses biodiversity loss and other environment issues.

Owing to its popularity over the years, climate change has become synonymous with all environment or green issues and therefore encompasses all ecological crises. In reality, climate change is only one issue under the umbrella of nature crises.

In fact, climate is just one of several planetary boundaries of the Earth System which includes biodiversity, ozone, freshwater, land use, nitrogen and phosophorus cycle, chemicals, and others. See Figures for other diagrams of planetary boundaries.

Source: MAHB post

Biodiversity loss sounds like a new topic and not as widely accepted.

Though the issue lacks mainstream media attention, biodiversity loss has been an enduring subject matter in the ecological and environment science literature since the 1970s. It is widely accepted and well-established with enough impetus to establish a UN convention in 1992 for global initiatives on the issue and intergovernmental science body in 2012 to assess the current knowledge on the topic for policymakers.

See Reports that includes three global assessments across the decades (1995, 2005, and 2019) each with stark findings of rapid biodiversity loss due to human activities.

Climate change causes biodiversity loss, so are the same thing.

While the two crises share mutually reinforcing and overlapping causes and effects, the scientific evidence over decades demonstrates both crises are distinct issues and should not be conflated without acknowledgment of their unique and shared qualities.

Consequently, the approach to solve one may negatively or positively affect the other. See Figures that show graphics of overlap, trade-offs, and synergies between the two planetary emergencies.

Biodiversity loss is a natural phenomenon.

While species extinctions and ecosystem shifts are natural processes on Earth including five known mass extinction events, the present situation of biodiversity loss exceeds the natural occurrence in geological timescales. Also, unlike past events, the current rapid loss of biodiversity and ecosystems is mostly due to a single species aware of their actions.

See Quotes which includes the finding from IPBES’s 2019 Global Assessment: the rate of extinction is ten to hundreds of times higher than the average background rate in the last 10 million years and is accelerating.

Source: TheConversation.com article

Biodiversity loss would be well known if it is so important.

Biodiversity coverage in the media has been a challenge for decades and in turn causes a lack of awareness among the general public. Studies (IIED (2008), Veríssimo, et. al (2014), Legagneux, et al. (2018), and Bradshaw, et al. (2021)) have discussed the under-reported media coverage and messaging of biodiversity loss. As an unfortunate result, only experts tend to know about this planetary crisis.

Even Sir Robert Watson, who either chaired or co-chaired all three global biodiversity assessments acknowledge in a The Guardian op-ed how much biodiversity has been ignored despite its severity and critical importance.

Source: Frontiers paper

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Why And Biodiversity? To mitigate the next mass extinction event:

Ordovician
Extinction

440 million
years ago
Due to glaciation causing habitat loss and later global warming
85% loss of mostly marine plant and animal species

Devonian
Extinction

365 million
years ago
Due to loss of oxygen and global cooling causing habitat loss
75% loss of mostly marine plant and animal species

Permian
Extinction

252 million
years ago
Due to volcanic activity causing global warming
95% loss of
marine and land, plant and animal species

Triassic
Extinction

201 million
years ago
Due to volcanic activity causing global warming
80% loss of
marine and land, plant and animal species

Cretaceous
Extinction

66 million
years ago
Due to asteroid impact causing atmospheric debris
75% loss of
marine and land, plant and animal species

Holocene
Extinction

12,000 years ago
to Present
Due to human activities causing habitat loss and climate change
??% loss of
wild and domestic species

Sources: National Geographic Mass Extinctions Infographic and Britannica Mass Extinction Event

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Why And Biodiversity? To help stop:

	Logging		Poaching		Overfishing		Dredging		Emitting
	Spraying		Dumping		Draining		Encroaching		Degrading

| And Biodiversity

…Hence, these shades
Are still the abodes of gladness; the thick roof
Of green and stirring branches is alive
And musical with birds, that sing and sport
In wantonness of spirit; while below

The squirrel, with raised paws and form erect,
Chirps merrily. Throngs of insects in the shade
Try their thin wings and dance in the warm beam
That waked them into life. Even the green trees
Partake the deep contentment…

-“Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood”
William Cullen Bryant

| And Biodiversity

I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;

When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals—
I know what the caged bird feels!…

-“Sympathy”
Paul Laurence Dunbar

| And Biodiversity

…And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

-“Hope is the thing with feathers”
Emily Dickinson

| And Biodiversity

…I’m gonna write me some music about
Daybreak in Alabama
And I’m gonna put the purtiest songs in it
Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist

And falling out of heaven like soft dew
I’m gonna put some tall tall trees in it
And the scent of pine needles
And the smell of red clay after rain…

-“Daybreak in Alabama”
Langston Hughes