From disappearing species to plastic pollution and our disastrously weak attempts to recycle it, here’s what the top voices on climate change – from Sir David Attenborough to Jane Goodall to Greta Thunberg – have to say about the planet’s escalating biodiversity crisis.
“We’ve stolen our children’s future – and we’re still stealing it.” –Jane Goodall.
Sir David Attenborough, Jane Goodall and Greta Thunberg are joined in this global call for action by Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, the United Nations’ Cristiana Pasca Palmer, Daniela Fernandez of Sustainable Ocean Action, Brune Poirson, Malek Sukkar and Heather Koldewey.
(8 Aug 2019) Two authors of a landmark U.N. report on the relationship between climate change and land say the science behind global warming is “scary” and warned that food insecurity is a growing problem.
Koko Warner, who contributed to a chapter on risk management and decision-making in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, said she had lost a lot of sleep about what the science is saying and urgent action needs to be taken.
She and two other experts on climate and conservation spoke to the Associated Press after the U.N. backed IPCC released the report at the World Meteorological Organisation’s headquarters in Geneva.
The special report, written by more than 100 scientists and unanimously approved by diplomats from nations around the world, made further warnings about the issue of global warming.
It also laid out actions that governments, farmers, and the general public can take to help battle climate change.
The scientists said if people change the way they eat and grow food it could help save the planet from a far warmer future.
Cynthia Rosenzweig, who contributed to chapter of the IPCC report on food security, said climate change is already impacting food security and extreme weather events caused by climate change are also affecting the supply chain of our food.
Earth’s land masses are warming twice as fast as the planet as a whole.
While heat-trapping gases are causing problems in the atmosphere, the land has been less talked about as part of climate change.
Global Policy Manager for WWF’s Climate and Energy Practice Fernanda Carvalho said the report touched on “everything” with regard to land and climate change, though she said the conservation group would have liked to see more of a focus on biodiversity.
One in 10 known species in the world lives in the Amazon, the most culturally and biologically diverse place on the planet. But the Amazon’s ecosystems are at risk.
The World Bank-led and Global Environment Facility (GEF)-financed Amazon Sustainable Landscapes Program (ASL) aims to protect this vast diversity and implement policies to foster sustainable land use and restore native vegetation cover. The ASL is the result of the joint effort from Brazil, Colombia, and Peru (which together contain 83% of the Amazon basin) and partner agencies to develop an integrated program. This video highlights the forest’s biodiversity, some of it’s threats, and the countries’ efforts to conserve over 73 million hectares of forests and bodies of water, ensure landscape connectivity, and support communities and indigenous peoples.
