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Today's Top News
'Key Time' to Solve Nature Crisis
A major UN meeting aimed at finding solutions to the world's nature crisis opens on Monday in Japan.
Species are going extinct at 100-1,000 times the natural rate, key habitat is disappearing, and ever more water and land is being used to support people.
Some economists say this is already damaging human prosperity.
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting will discuss why governments failed to curb these trends by 2010, as they pledged in 2002.
Delegates will also try to finalise a long-delayed agreement on exploiting natural resources in a fair and equitable way.
Before the start of the two-week meeting, Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (Unep), said it was a crucial point in attempts to stem the loss of biodiversity.
"There are moments when issues mature in terms of public perception and political attention, and become key times for action," he told the BBC.
"And this is a moment when the recognition that biodiversity and ecosystems need preservation urgently is high, when people are concerned by it, and are demanding more action from the global community."
A UN-sponsored team of economists has calculated that loss of biodiversity and ecosystems is costing the human race $2 trillion to $5 trillion a year.
Going downhill
Governments first agreed back in 1992, at the Rio Earth Summit, that the ongoing loss of biodiversity needed attention. The CBD was born there, alongside the UN climate convention.
It aims to preserve the diversity of life on Earth, facilitate the sustainable use of plants and animals, and allow fair and equitable exploitation of natural genetic resources.
The convention acquired teeth 10 years later, at the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development.
Noting that nature's diversity is "the foundation upon which human civilisation has been built", governments pledged "to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on Earth".
Since 2002, most measures of the health of the natural world have gone downhill rather than up.
The majority of species studied over the period are moving closer to extinction rather than further away, while important natural habitat such as forests, wetlands, rivers and coral reefs continue to shrink or be disturbed.
"Since the 1960s we've doubled our food consumption, our water consumption," said Jonathan Baillie, director of conservation programmes at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).
"The world's population has doubled, and the economy has grown sixfold; in 2050 there will be 9.2 billion people on the planet."
There are signs of change in some regions. The forest area is growing in Europe and China, while deforestation is slowing in Brazil.
About 12% of the world's land is now under some form of protection.
But in other areas, countries - particularly in the tropics - have made little progress towards the 2010 target.
Government delegates here will consider adopting a new set of targets for 2020 that aim to tackle the causes of biodiversity loss - the expansion of agriculture, pollution, climate change, the spread of alien invasive species, the increasing use of natural resources - which conservationists believe might be a more effective option than setting targets on nature itself.
Difficult birth?
Delegates will also be negotiating a draft agreement on exploiting the genetic resources of the natural world fairly and sustainably.
The protocol, named Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS), aims to prevent "biopiracy" while enabling societies with abundant plant and animal life to profit from any drugs or other products that might be made from them.
Agreement on ABS has been pursued since 1992 without producing a result. But after four years of preparatory talks, officials believe the remaining differences can be hammered out here.
"We are confident that on 29 October, we'll celebrate the birth of another baby, with the support of all parties, and we'll have a protocol on access and benefit sharing," said Ahmed Djoghlaf, CBD executive secretary.
"This protocol will be a future investment for the human family as a whole."
However, the bitter politicking that has soured the atmosphere in a number of UN environment processes - most notably at the Copenhagen climate summit - threatens some aspects of the Nagoya meeting.
Some developing nations are insisting that the ABS protocol be signed off here before they will agree to the establishment of an international scientific panel to assess biodiversity issues.
The Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is due to be signed off during the current UN General Assembly session in New York.
Many experts believe it is necessary if scientific evidence on the importance of biodiversity loss is to be transmitted effectively to governments, in the same way that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assembles evidence that governments can use when deciding whether to tackle climate change.
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18 Comments so far
Show AllFunny, no mention of the u.s.'s or u.k.'s position.
Externalize costs. Maximize profits. Genuflect to the invisible hand. Watch the NFL.
Ehh, 'cepting you can't see the Tour de France on free TV.
We all gots our priorities---MD
Once we start talking about the Living World as 'natural resources' to be 'exploited fairly and sustainably', the argument is all over. We humans, like all other plants and animals, are part of a vast web of life. Messing with it here means messing with it there as well. No treaty can save us as long as we see ourselves separate from our divine Mother, Earth.
Humility towards, respect for, and appreciation of Mother Earth has definitely fallen by the wayside in modern culture.
But, you might be misconstruing "exploited." One use of the word is; to take unfair advantage. The other is; to use for benefit. Squirrels exploit nuts. Worms exploit detritus. Raccoons exploit nearly everything and the former definition often applies.
"Fairly" should include the web, as you say.
It facilitates "sustainably".
Peace and goodwill, Buck
"No treaty can save as long as we see ourselves separate from our divine Mother Earth."
Find some way in this moment to crush our sense of superiority and expose this truth.
PLANET EARTH HAS A HUMAN BEING PROBLEM
"Species are going extinct at 100-1,000 times the natural rate, key habitat is disappearing, and ever more water and land is being used to support people."
Note: "more water...land...to support people."
"Some economists say this is already damaging human prosperity."
Note: "damaging human prosperity" [sic] [yeah, while all other sentient beings -- domestic, free-living -- birds, beasts, fishes, other -- bear the oppressive burden of "sharing" Earth's resources with an imploded, narcissistic, psychotic human species!
"A UN-sponsored team of economists has calculated that loss of biodiversity and ecosystems is costing the human race $2 trillion to $5 trillion a year."
Note: "costing the human race...."? [see above]
"It aims to preserve the diversity of life on Earth, facilitate the sustainable use of plants and animals, and allow fair and equitable exploitation of natural genetic resources."
Note: "aims to...facilitate the sustainable use" [by and for humans]..."allow fair and equitable exploitation" [by and for humans].
"The majority of species studied over the period are moving closer to extinction rather than further away, while important natural habitat such as forests, wetlands, rivers and coral reefs continue to shrink or be disturbed."
Note: speaks for itself
""Since the 1960s we've doubled our food consumption, our water consumption," said Jonathan Baillie, director of conservation programmes at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL)."
Note: [humans have] "doubled...food...water comsumption"
""The world's population has doubled, and the economy has grown sixfold; in 2050 there will be 9.2 billion people on the planet.""
Note: Welcome to the human infested planet!
"The protocol, named Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS), aims to prevent "biopiracy" while enabling societies with abundant plant and animal life to profit from any drugs or other products that might be made from them."
Note: "enabling societies with abundant plant and animal life to profit" [enabling an overabundant species to become more overabundant]
""This protocol will be a future investment for the human family as a whole.""
Note: "a future investment for the human family" [sic] [as long as other animal individuals and species can survive the human plague, there is an alternative to humanity, and I'll chose my own alternative family, thank you!
The world is MORE THAN PEOPLE. Life is MORE THAN HUMAN. Nevertheless, environmentalists and progressives need to be reminded that humans aren't the center of everything [or the most beneficial and valuable life form in the universe]:
"Ptolemy's findings were that the earth was a fixed, inert, immovable mass, located at the center of the universe, and all celestial bodies, including the sun and the fixed stars, revolved around it. It was a theory that appealed to human nature. It fit with the casual observations that a person might want to make in the field; and second, it fed man's ego."
"Copernicus died in 1543 and was never to know what a stir his work had caused. It went against the philosophical and religious beliefs that had been held during the medieval times. Man, it was believed (and still believed by some) was made by God in His image, man was the next thing to God, and, as such, superior, especially in his best part, his soul, to all creatures, indeed this part was not even part of the natural world (a philosophy which has proved disastrous to the earth's environment as any casual observer of the 20th century might confirm by simply looking about). Copernicus' theories might well lead men to think that they are simply part of nature and not superior to it and that ran counter to the theories of the politically powerful churchmen of the time."
"The most important aspect of Copernicus' work is that it forever changed the place of man in the cosmos; no longer could man legitimately think his significance greater than his fellow creatures; with Copernicus' work, man could now take his place among that which exists all about him, and not of necessity take that premier position which had been assigned immodestly to him by the theologians."
A fine post, rodent!
In short, there really is no "nature crisis." Extinction events have come and gone. This is just another one. Nature is resilient. Short of an extraordinary positive feedback mechanism that renders the planet unihabitable, I would expect evolution to continue on its merry way until about the time the sun dies. Vaunted human intelligence probably cannot and will not tear its way out of the existential paper bag you have so artfully revealed. But we can try. All we can do is try.
The earth will be inhabitable by something; certainly bacteria, and probably insects, no matter how much we screw it up. And there is no telling what sorts of things will evolve by the time the Sun goes Nova and the planet is burned to a crisp.
The only reason to try to prevent global warming is to leave a decent habitat for the world's children, their children, etc., etc. But few if any people in positions of authority (in government or business) seem to think that way.
"the world's children, their children, etc., etc." don't deserve a decent habitat. Their parents and their parents' parents, etc., etc. don't have much of a track record. Some say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. I say that's the definition of human reproduction.
Nature is resilient and ever expanding.
Years ago, some researchers found a tiny seed in broken down rice detritus in a clay storage vessel underwater in the shipwreck of a 8,000 year old Japanese transport. They planted it and the Rhododendron is growing today.
A researcher was looking at 10,000 year old ice, sliced from a bore. The ice melted on the slide as he watched and micro organisms immediately started swimming around.
I have seen fish frozen for months, swim off after the warm spring sun melted the ice just off shore on Lake Michigan.
A spore could potentially travel endlessly through space and time waiting for the conditions to germinate.
Life could be spread by any number of Natural processes, like two masses colliding, one or both life bearing, spores broadcast in ever direction.
A new specie has evolved from Homo sapien sapien, Homo vainus ignoramus. Modern culturites, not all humans, may trip the balances and send life spiraling backwards even before the big heat. More than likely the big heat will be followed by a big chill. There was a time when Earth's crust was completely covered with ice. It may take millions of years for the equilibrium and diversity to return.
But, life will go on, here or somewhere.
Peace and goodwill, Buck
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting will discuss why governments failed to curb these trends by 2010, as they pledged in 2002
I dont think they need a convention to figure out that the corporate bribery of our governments is the reason.
The neanderthals will return.
Amurkun, I too was struck by the word exploiting. Nowhere in here was the word sustainable. The human population just can't seem to wrap its brains around the fact that there is only one earth and its resources are therefore limited. Some are renewable, but only if we take care not to screw them up. Unfortunately, we don't. Our water sources are polluted and getting more so by the day. Our forests are dying or are destroyed. Our oceans polluted and over fished.
I feel like I'm on Easter Island around the time the last stand of trees was being eyed by Easter Island Canoe Company, and the village elders just gave them the okay because the economy needs the jobs.
Depressing it is.
I'll bett, though I may be wrong, that you read Diamond's chapter on Easter Island.
I'll bett, though I may be wrong, that you read Diamond's chapter on Easter Island.
Part of the problem, as I see it is this.
500 years ago we KNEW where our food and resources and "prosperity" came from. It came from nature.
Now when we go out for groceries we take our MONEY and go to a store and BUY our food.
The perception is now it is MONEY that provides our food and resources. Therefore we are lead to believe that in order to ensure a growing supply of food and resources we need ever more MONEY . To get ever more money we have decided to turn nature into "private property" to be exploited thus producing "wealth" in the form of Money.
The system we call "capitalism" tells us that it those with "capital" that produce and that only via "Money and Capital" can we provide for a growing population.
Its all ass backwards. If the "love of money" is the root of all evil, then it Capitalism that puts money on a pedestal that is all but worshipped as our provider.
'Key Time' to Solve Nature Crisis
No shit. When was it not a "Key Time"?
Key Times come and Key Times go and nothing gets done.
Too big to fail? No. Too dumb to live.