Human Civilization Is Under Threat. We Must Save Nature to Save Ourselves

By Susan Casey-Lefkowitz
This is a rough moment to read or listen to environmental news. As we're experiencing a seemingly unending parade of rollbacks and pro-polluter actions coming out of DC, the international science community is ringing the alarm bell on a series of issues that need attention — now. Most notably, last year's IPCC climate report made clear that action needs to happen fast if we are going to stave off the worst impacts of climate change.
That report was scary. Now there's a new scientific assessment of global ecosystems on the verge of collapse — and it's downright horrific.
The United Nations' Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services reflects the scientific expertise of 150 biodiversity experts from 50 countries on behalf of the Intergovernmental Science – Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The report is organized around four key messages:
- Nature underpins and sustains quality of life, but its contributions to people are deteriorating worldwide.
- The issues and practices pushing us toward natural collapse have accelerated during the past 50 years. For example, over the past 30 years, global trade has increased eightfold.
- Short-term goals for protecting nature and achieving sustainability cannot be met by current trajectories, but goals for 2030, 2050 and beyond can be achieved through transformative change, which means a fundamental, system-wide reorganization across technological, economic and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values.
- Nature can be conserved, restored and used sustainably while simultaneously meeting other global societal goals through proven solutions and transformative change.
In short, the report says we need to protect nature — or nature is going to stop protecting us in some very frightening ways: disappearance of species we care about and rely on, like pollinators and freshwater fish; decline in agricultural yields due to severely damaged soil; eradication of forest ecosystems, along with all the carbon storage and wildlife home benefits they bring; and elimination of freshwater streams that provide drinking water for our survival.
As this report makes clear, our international framework for protecting nature is not enough: "The negative trends in nature and its contributions to people are projected to continue to 2050 and beyond in all scenarios except those that include transformative change, due to the projected impact of increasing land-use change, exploitation of organisms, and climate change."
It is hard not to read the assessment and just curl up in a ball. Like climate change, these issues seem huge.
But the reality is that there are solutions. And many are not new. This report just makes it more urgent for us to do things that we have known were needed for quite some time and push the envelope on some new ideas.
Taking the steps necessary to reverse the degradation of our natural world will not be easy, but there is a clear path. We must prioritize nature for itself and as the system that nurtures us and our children into future generations. We must set aside vast areas of land, waters and ocean from industrial development; we must adopt new laws and invent new mechanisms that elevate the needs of nature; and we must be bold in using existing tools to maximize protections for nature.
Protect vast areas of land and ocean.
We must expand the current network of land-based protected areas and marine protected areas, particularly in the context of climate change. Earlier this year, NRDC joined some of the world's biggest and most respected conservation groups to call for 30 percent of the world's lands and oceans to be made protected areas by 2030. And we need to stop doing wasteful things like chopping down the boreal forest in Canada for toilet paper, or the great forests of the American Southeast for exported wood pellets dirtying up the energy sector in other countries while worsening the environment in our own. The report makes clear these sorts of actions are even more necessary than we thought.
Sustainably feed the world.
We must do a better job at land-use planning and managing crop and livestock production and consumption. We must implement ecosystem-based fisheries management and spatial planning — including the expansion of marine protected areas — in a manner that addresses ocean stress from climate change, pollution and acidification. We also need to get far more serious about restorative agricultural practices that address the health of soils that our farms are utterly reliant upon.
Safeguard freshwater.
To maintain adequate access to clean, fresh water, which is suffering from climate change, pollution and demand, we must improve efficiency, increase storage capacity, improve water quality and minimize the disruption of our natural water systems. We need to ensure that existing wetlands and source waters are protected by strong national laws, minimize pollution and nutrient flows into our waters by farming in ways that protect soil and minimize fertilizer use, and ensure that our rivers have enough water flowing through them to maintain healthy fish and wildlife populations.
Disrupt current patterns of consumption and waste.
Simply put, we must reduce wasteful consumption.
Many of the tools to fix our global problems are there. We can address this global crisis by taking these aforementioned steps and building them out with new, bold initiatives. I hope the IPBES' assessment will be the signal we all need to start taking aggressive action. Rather than curl up in a ball in fear, I prefer to visualize the better, brighter, fairer, safer, more lovely world that will result from taking the actions necessary.
A UN-backed report says a million species are at risk of extinction, and warns #biodiversity loss and failure to conserve ecosystems has catastrophic effects on people as well as nature. @centerforbiodiv @laikenjordahl @billmckibben @IPBES https://t.co/gGYRNawuMo
— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) May 6, 2019
Susan Casey-Lefkowitz directs NRDC's Climate and Clean Energy, Healthy People and Thriving Communities, Nature, and International programs.
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While traditional investment in the ocean technology sector has been tentative, growth in Israeli maritime innovations has been exponential in the last few years, and environmental concern has come to the forefront.
theDOCK aims to innovate the Israeli maritime sector. Pexels
<p>The UN hopes that new investments in ocean science and technology will help turn the tide for the oceans. As such, this year kicked off the <a href="https://www.oceandecade.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030)</a> to galvanize massive support for the blue economy.</p><p>According to the World Bank, the blue economy is the "sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of ocean ecosystem," <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412019338255#b0245" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Science Direct</a> reported. It represents this new sector for investments and innovations that work in tandem with the oceans rather than in exploitation of them.</p><p>As recently as Aug. 2020, <a href="https://www.reutersevents.com/sustainability/esg-investors-slow-make-waves-25tn-ocean-economy" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Reuters</a> noted that ESG Investors, those looking to invest in opportunities that have a positive impact in environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, have been interested in "blue finance" but slow to invest.</p><p>"It is a hugely under-invested economic opportunity that is crucial to the way we have to address living on one planet," Simon Dent, director of blue investments at Mirova Natural Capital, told Reuters.</p><p>Even with slow investment, the blue economy is still expected to expand at twice the rate of the mainstream economy by 2030, Reuters reported. It already contributes $2.5tn a year in economic output, the report noted.</p><p>Current, upward <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/-innovation-blue-economy-2646147405.html" target="_self">shifts in blue economy investments are being driven by innovation</a>, a trend the UN hopes will continue globally for the benefit of all oceans and people.</p><p>In Israel, this push has successfully translated into investment in and innovation of global ports, shipping, logistics and offshore sectors. The "Startup Nation," as Israel is often called, has seen its maritime tech ecosystem grow "significantly" in recent years and expects that growth to "accelerate dramatically," <a href="https://itrade.gov.il/belgium-english/how-israel-is-becoming-a-port-of-call-for-maritime-innovation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">iTrade</a> reported.</p><p>Driving this wave of momentum has been rising Israeli venture capital hub <a href="https://www.thedockinnovation.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">theDOCK</a>. Founded by Israeli Navy veterans in 2017, theDOCK works with early-stage companies in the maritime space to bring their solutions to market. The hub's pioneering efforts ignited Israel's maritime technology sector, and now, with their new fund, theDOCK is motivating these high-tech solutions to also address ESG criteria.</p><p>"While ESG has always been on theDOCK's agenda, this theme has become even more of a priority," Nir Gartzman, theDOCK's managing partner, told EcoWatch. "80 percent of the startups in our portfolio (for theDOCK's Navigator II fund) will have a primary or secondary contribution to environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria."</p><p>In a company presentation, theDOCK called contribution to the ESG agenda a "hot discussion topic" for traditional players in the space and their boards, many of whom are looking to adopt new technologies with a positive impact on the planet. The focus is on reducing carbon emissions and protecting the environment, the presentation outlines. As such, theDOCK also explicitly screens candidate investments by ESG criteria as well.</p><p>Within the maritime space, environmental innovations could include measures like increased fuel and energy efficiency, better monitoring of potential pollution sources, improved waste and air emissions management and processing of marine debris/trash into reusable materials, theDOCK's presentation noted.</p>theDOCK team includes (left to right) Michal Hendel-Sufa, Head of Alliances, Noa Schuman, CMO, Nir Gartzman, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, and Hannan Carmeli, Co-Founder & Managing Partner. Dudu Koren
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