By Maanvinder Pilania
What I am not? I am a good man, who cares about everyone like you. But what will lack in my life is very much and I have a lot to say.
I’m not a Bird which makes all of us wake up early in the morning because of its melodious chirping sound.
I’m not a Lion which makes everyone in the jungle very afraid when it roars.
I’m not a Whale which sleeps with one eye open.
I’m not a Tree which gives you oxygen to breathe in.
All these facts give rise to a very big question: “Am I Enough?”
My question has a very big reason hidden in it; which is about the rapid rate of biodiversity decline because of a currently existing crisis- The Climate Crisis. We’re facing this Ecological Crisis or Ecological Emergency as a result of our Emissions.
The Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services by the United Nations Panel-“ IPBES”, stated that- due to Human Impact on this Environment, in the past half-century, the Earth’s Biodiversity has suffered a catastrophic decline unprecedented in human history. An estimated 82% of Wild-Mammal biomass has been lost, while 40% of Amphibians, almost a third of Reef-building Corals, and 10% of all insects are threatened with extinction.
In simple words, more than one million species are on the verge of mass extinction. This report was released on 6 May 2019. Now it’s over one complete year but since then no action seems to be taken by the governments around the world.
Climate change is one of the biggest drivers of biodiversity loss, say scientists in IPBES report.
A recent UN report highlights links between ‘unprecedented biodiversity loss’ and the spread of disease.
Testing sheep for diseases in Bako, Ethiopia.
The continued degradation of the environment is increasing the likelihood of diseases spreading from animals to humans, warns the latest UN report on biodiversity. The report notes the importance of biodiversity in addressing climate change, and long-term food security, and concludes that action to protect biodiversity is essential to prevent future pandemics.
The study acts as a wake-up call, and an encouragement to consider the dangers involved in mankind’s current relationship with nature: continued biodiversity loss, and the ongoing degradation of ecosystems, are having profound consequences for human wellbeing and survival.
“Earth’s living systems as a whole are being compromised”, said Ms. Mrema, “and the more humanity exploits nature in unsustainable ways and undermines its contributions to people, the more we undermine our own well-being, security, and prosperity.”
Although the lack of success in meeting the targets is a cause for concern, the authors of the Outlook are at pains to stress that virtually all countries are now taking some steps to protect biodiversity, without which the state of the world’s biodiversity would be considerably worse.
The bright spots include falling rates of deforestation, the eradication of invasive alien species from more islands, and raised awareness of biodiversity and its importance overall.
However, this encouraging progress can’t mask the fact that the natural world is suffering badly, and that the situation is getting worse. Financing is a case in point: funding for actions linked to biodiversity has been estimated at between $78 - $91 billion per year, way below the hundreds of billions needed. And this figure is dwarfed by the amount of money spent on activities that are harmful to biodiversity, including some $500 billion for fossil fuels, and other subsidies that cause environmental degradation.
And, in relation to health concerns, and the spread of diseases from animals to humans, the report calls for a “One Health” transition, in which agriculture, the urban environment, and wildlife are managed in a way that promotes healthy ecosystems and healthy people.
Some said that Covid-19 spread from Pangolins to Humans.
Reacting to the report, UN chief António Guterres said that the transitions represent an unprecedented opportunity to “build back better”, as the world emerges from the immediate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic:
“Part of this new agenda must be to tackle the twin global challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss in a more coordinated manner, understanding both that climate change threatens to undermine all other efforts to conserve biodiversity; and that nature itself offers some of the most effective solutions to avoid the worst impacts of a warming planet.”
Yes, we need to work for One Health for a sustainable, safer, and healthier world. We also need to start treating this current Ecological crisis as a crisis.
In the One Health Solution, we need to change our relationship with nature. We need to start caring about the health of everyone despite caring about the fact that they are plants or animals.
The world is now facing the Corona Virus Outbreak but with that, we’re also facing a Biodiversity Extinction Outbreak and we need to implement new policies to stop this Outbreak by taking Global Climate Action.
Still, we’re busy in 20th Century debates to find answers to the questions but why these debates? When we already have the solutions, we need to implement those to save the biodiversity of this planet.
We’re in the midst of a Big Sixth Mass Extinction. Earth has faced 5 extinctions yet and they all were because of natural causes. And this Sixth mass extinction is happening. We’re in the midst of it. And this extinction is not happening because of natural causes, it is happening because of human-made Climate Change.
In the last 50 years, there’s a 29% decline in the population of birds in the United States and Canada. And that’s all happening because of one and only Climate Change. Nature is the only solution to the climate crisis. And for this, we need to take Climate Action and start conserving nature.
Scientists say Climate Change and pollution could kill up to 90% of Coral Reefs in the next 25 years. And nearly all the world’s Coral Reefs could be dead by 2100. It’s because of Warming Oceans. Oceans are warming because they absorb the heat from the atmosphere which is increasing day by day due to an increase in our Carbon Emissions. According to Scientists, Heat is added by Humans compared to adding the 5 Atomic Bombs in Ocean per second. Oceans absorb 90% of the heat trapped by Green House Gases (GHGs).
Heat stresses the Corals making them reject the corals that live and feeds on them. Corals are the Rainforest of the Ocean’s which hold more species of living organisms than the entire ocean. They feed the Fishes, etc in the oceans. They protect the coastlines from waves and tropical storms and provide shelter to the creatures in the ocean.
Plastic pollution is also a big threat to sea- life. In April 2019, following the discovery of a dead Sperm Whale off of Sardinia with 48 pounds of plastics in its stomachs, the World Wildlife Foundation warned that plastic pollution is one of the most dangerous threats to Sea-Life, nothing that 5 whales have been killed by plastic over a period of two years.
If we look at any other study by the researchers of Arizona University in the US says that by the year 2070 one-third of the species of Plants and Animals will be extinct completely. If the average temperature is increased by 0.5 degree Celsius then 50% of species will be vanished completely, whereas if the average temperature increases by 2.9 degree Celsius so then 95% of all species will have vanished completely. The percent of species that will be extinct depends on how hot the Environment will be. If the temperature will be much higher than these numbers will become much worse.
Now, we have the facts through a great number of scientists' suggestions.
We have the Solutions to stop this big mass Extinction.
But what we need now is the courage to act.
Let’s Take Climate Action Now.