The other big crisis we hear little about
A high-level meeting is underway this week as part of an effort to stop a biodiversity collapse that scientists say could equal climate change as an existential crisis.
The U.N. biodiversity conference seeks to tackle the rapid collapse of species and systems that collectively sustain life on Earth, and comes ahead of the global climate summit in Glasgow, beginning Oct. 31.
The stakes at the two meetings are equally high, many leading scientists say, but the biodiversity crisis has received far less attention. Humans have destroyed land through farming, mining, logging, overfishing and more. Scientists say transformational change is needed.
Quotable: “If the global community continues to see it as a side event, and they continue thinking that climate change is now the thing to really listen to, by the time they wake up on biodiversity it might be too late,” said Francis Ogwal, one of the leaders of the working group charged with shaping an agreement among nations.
Details: The average abundance of native species in most major terrestrial biomes has fallen by at least 20 percent, mostly since 1900, according to a major report on the state of the world’s biodiversity. Lose too many players in an ecosystem, and it will stop working.
