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In 'Historic Victory' for Oceans, Norway Pauses Controversial Deep-Sea Mining Plans
"We will not let this industry destroy the unique life in the deep sea, not in the Arctic, nor anywhere else," one campaigner said.
Dec 03, 2025
In a move celebrated by environmental advocates as a "massive win for nature," the Norwegian government on Wednesday delayed the issuing of deep-sea mining licenses in its Arctic waters for a second year in a row, this time until 2029.
In January 2024, Norway drew massive criticism from ocean campaigners and scientists when it became the first European country to open its waters to the controversial practice. Since then, however, smaller parties have twice succeeded in delaying the granting of licenses in return for passing the yearly budget.
“Deep-sea mining in Norway has once again been successfully stopped," Haldis Tjeldflaat Helle, the deep-sea mining campaigner at Greenpeace Nordic, said in a statement. "We will not let this industry destroy the unique life in the deep sea, not in the Arctic, nor anywhere else."
Wednesday's decision came as part of the new Labour government's budget negotiations, as the Reds, the Socialist Left Party, and the Green Party all opposed granting licenses. To pass its state budget, the government agreed "not to launch the first tenders for deep-sea mining during the current legislative term," which lasts four years, according to Agence France-Presse. The agreement comes a year after a similar intervention by the Socialist Left Party delayed the first round of licenses.
"Wherever this industry tries to start, it fails. We can protect the oceans from extraction."
The Norwegian government also said it would no longer direct public funds toward mapping for minerals, which Greenpeace called a "major shift in its stance on deep-sea mining."
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) agreed, saying, "This decision represents a significant shift in Norway’s position and is a historic victory for nature, science, and public pressure."
A 2024 Greenpeace report warned that mining the Arctic seabed could cause "irreversible harm" to its unique ecosystems and even drive some as yet unstudied species extinct.
“This decision is a historic victory. Norwegian politicians decided to listen to scientific expertise and to the strong public demand to protect the vulnerable deep-sea environment, rather than being swayed by the mining lobby,” Karoline Andaur, CEO of WWF-Norway, said in a statement.
Louisa Casson, a Greenpeace International deep-sea mining campaigner, wrote on social media: "Deep-sea miners thought it would be easy to start mining the Arctic seafloor… But thanks to campaigning, Norway has just halted all deep-sea mining development! Wherever this industry tries to start, it fails. We can protect the oceans from extraction."
Deep-sea mining opponents like Greenpeace saw Norway's decision as "another blow" to an industry that has faced widespread popular opposition. It follows the decision by the Cook Islands last month to postpone a determination on deep-sea mining until 2032.
“There is no version of seabed mining that is sustainable or safe," Greenpeace Aotearoa campaigner Juressa Lee said in a statement at the time. "Alongside our allies who want to protect the ocean for future generations, we will continue to say a loud and bold no to miners who want to strip the seafloor for their profit.”
Following its pause on licenses, environmental advocates want Norway to bolster the growing momentum against deep-sea mining by joining the nations who have signed on in support of a global moratorium.
"Now Norway must step up and become a real ocean leader, join the call for a global moratorium against deep-sea mining, and bring forward a proposal of real protection for the Arctic deep sea," Helle said.
WWF's Andaur noted that "as cochair of the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, Norway now has a unique opportunity be consistent and stand alongside their cochair Palau and the 40 countries already supporting a global moratorium or pause on deep-seabed mining, turning this national pause into true global ocean leadership."
“Millions of people across the world are calling on governments to resist the dire threat of deep-sea mining to safeguard oceans worldwide," Greenpeace's Casson said. "This is yet another huge step forward to protect the Arctic, and now it is time for Norway to join over 40 countries calling for a moratorium and be a true ocean champion."
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Ocean Summit Wake-Up Call on Plastics Treaty 'Only Matters If Countries Back It Up With Action'
Civil society groups responded to the declaration by stressing that the statement must be a "floor, not a ceiling" going into the next round of global plastics treaty talks.
Jun 11, 2025
Nearly 100 countries at the United Nations Ocean Conference on Tuesday issued a joint declaration demanding a bold global plastics treaty ahead of the next round of negotiations—a call that civil society groups welcomed, while also stressing that any strong language must be followed by similar action.
The "Nice Wake-Up Call for an Ambitious Plastics Treaty," named for the French coastal city hosting this week's U.N. summit, says that "we are heartened by the constructive engagement of the majority of Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) members to conclude an effective treaty that is urgently needed, acknowledging the scale of socioeconomic challenges that ending plastic pollution may represent for certain parties."
The declaration focuses on five key points for the next talks, INC-5.2, scheduled for August 5-14 in Geneva, Switzerland:
- We recognize that addressing the increasing and unsustainable levels of production and consumption of plastics is essential;
- We call for a legally binding obligation to phase out the most problematic plastic products and chemicals of concern in plastic products;
- We emphasize the importance of a binding obligation to improve the design of plastic products and ensure they cause minimum environmental impact and safeguard human health;
- We recognize the need for effective means of implementation and accessible, new, and additional financing, noting the special circumstances of least developed countries and small island developing states; and
- We call for an effective and ambitious treaty that can evolve over time and is responsive to changes in emerging evidence and knowledge.
"A treaty that lacks these elements, only relies on voluntary measures, or does not address the full lifecycle of plastics will not be effective to deal with the challenge of plastic pollution," warns the declaration, backed by the European Union and countries including Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Barbados, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Iceland, Madagascar, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Switzerland, Tuvalu, United Kingdom, and Vanuatu.
Erin Simon, vice president for plastic waste and business at World Wildlife Fund (WWF), said Tuesday that the statement "sends a positive signal that there is strong collaboration and support to secure a legally binding treaty to end plastic pollution."
"These are the types of priorities we're hopeful will be included in a final treaty," Simon noted. "Millions of people around the world have called for a solution to the plastic pollution crisis and while today is a step in the right direction we must continue to push toward advancing a meaningful and enduring agreement in Geneva."
Graham Forbes, Greenpeace USA's global plastics campaign lead and head of the group's delegation for the treaty talks, said that "the Nice declaration, signed by an overwhelming majority of countries, is the wake-up call the world needs. Governments are finally saying the quiet part out loud: We cannot end plastic pollution without cutting plastic production. Full stop."
Forbes continued:
The Nice Declaration tackles the root cause of the crisis, which is the ever-growing, reckless production of plastics driven by fossil fuel giants. The message to industry lobbyists is loud and clear: The health of our children is more important than your bottom line.
We welcome the call for a legally binding global cap on plastic production, and real rules to phase out the most toxic plastic products and chemicals. For too long, treaty talks have been stuck in circular conversations while plastic pollution chokes our oceans, poisons our bodies, and fuels the climate crisis.
But this statement only matters if countries back it up with action this August in Geneva at INC-5.2. That means no voluntary nonsense, no loopholes, and no surrender to fossil fuel and petrochemical interests. We need a treaty with teeth—one that slashes plastic production, holds polluters accountable, and protects people on the frontlines.
Greenpeace and WWF's global groups are part of a coalition of over 230 civil society organizations and rights holders focused on the plastics treaty—which responded to the new declaration by emphasizing that it must be a "floor, not a ceiling."
🚨Today, +230 civil society organizations welcome the renewed commitment of +90 countries to forge a binding global treaty to end plastic pollution and protect human health and the environment by addressing the full life cycle of plastics 🌍✊www.breakfreefromplastic.org/2025/06/11/n...
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— Break Free From Plastic (@breakfreefromplastic.org) June 10, 2025 at 1:10 PM
"The Nice declaration is a welcome step, but words must be followed with actions if we are serious about protecting the rights and health of all. Member states must show decisive leadership at INC-5.2 and deliver a strong, legally binding plastics treaty that leaves no one behind," said Juressa Lee, co-chair of the International Indigenous Peoples' Forum on Plastics, a coalition member.
"Communities on the frontlines, including Indigenous Peoples, are bearing the brunt of plastic pollution at every stage of its toxic lifecycle: from oil and gas extraction, to plastic production, to waste dumping, and the challenging process of environmental remediation, including the restoration of contaminated sites and the recognition of those who have protected these oceans and territories for millennia," Lee added. "We need action, not delay, to safeguard the ocean and the communities that depend on them."
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'The Fabric of Nature Is Unraveling,' Warns New Report on Wildlife Population Decline
"This is not just about wildlife," an expert said. "It's about the essential ecosystems that sustain human life."
Oct 10, 2024
Monitored populations of the world's vertebrate animals declined on average by 73% between 1970 and 2020, according to a major report released Wednesday by the World Wild Fund for Nature and the Zoological Society of London.
The 94-page report, 2024 Living Planet Report: A System in Peril, details the extent of loss for over 5,000 species of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles. The findings are based on studies of about 35,000 local populations of the studied species.
It's the latest version of a comprehensive report that has in the past been heavily cited by media, nonprofit, and government figures around the world. The previous version, published in 2022, found a 69% decline using data through 2018.
WWF released the new report, which is based on data in the Living Planet Index (LPI) maintained by ZSL, in advance of the COP16 global biodiversity summit that starts in Cali, Colombia on October 21.
"It really does indicate to us that the fabric of nature is unraveling,” Rebecca Shaw, WWF's chief scientist, told The Washington Post.
Monitored wildlife populations have decreased on average by 73% between 1970 and 2020, finds the latest Living Planet Index by our Institute of Zoology – the most comprehensive measure of vertebrate population trends across the globe. https://t.co/zJ7LBZC4mu pic.twitter.com/ZjVrHMotym
— ZSL (@OfficialZSL) October 10, 2024
The LPI, though seen by many as a key metric for following biodiversity loss, has been misinterpreted in the past and is not without its critics.
The findings don't mean that the total number of vertebrates or vertebrate species declined by 73%—rather, the figure shows an average change in population size. That is, in the index, a change in the population size of a very small population of, say, Guam kingfishers would have the same weight as a change in the population size of a far more populous animal.
A study published in June in Nature Communications questioned the mathematical techniques used by the LPI's authors and found that they had likely overstated vertebrate population decline. The LPI authors are preparing a rebuttal.
Some scientists, including Louise McRae, a ZSL researcher who works on the index, have suggested that it may in fact underestimate biodiversity loss because amphibian and reptile populations, which are struggling the most, are not fully represented in the database, as they're hard to monitor.
In any case, even the index's critics agree with the underlying argument that there is a crisis of biodiversity loss underway.
"This is unequivocal," Vox's Benji Jones wrote in an article that scrutinized the LPI. He continued:
Coral reefs are overheating and dying en masse. North America has lost some 3 billion birds. Insects are indeed vanishing. The rate of extinction is accelerating. In Hawaii, which has been called the extinction capital of the world, entire species of birds—and all the cultural heritage they carry—are blinking out as I write this.
WWF scientists emphasized that the biodiversity crisis is a crisis for humankind.
"This is not just about wildlife," Daudi Sumba, the group's chief conservation officer, said in a press call. "It's about the essential ecosystems that sustain human life."
Mike Barrett, a scientific adviser at WWF, agreed.
"Please don't just feel sad about the loss of nature," Barrett told the BBC. "Be aware that this is now a fundamental threat to humanity and we've really got to do something now."
Gerardo Ceballos, an ecologist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said this urgency was why the new report was useful.
"It shows us that we're still not doing enough," he told Vox. "The most important thing to understand is that unless we can save biodiversity there's no way we can save humanity."
Humans are indeed the cause of the biodiversity crisis. Habitat loss and degradation, "driven primarily by our food system," is the most reported threat to wildlife populations, WWF says. Other threats include overexploitation, invasive species, and climate change.
The United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in Cali is the first of its kind since December 2022, when the world's nations made a potentially historic agreement to protect 30% of the world's lands and waters by 2030—30x30, as it's called.
"The stakes couldn't be higher," The Nature Conservancy has written of the Cali summit. "The goal is to transform the commitments of the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework into actionable plans."
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'This Is a Disaster': Bonn Climate Conference Ends Without Financing Progress
"Developed countries are not even offering crumbs from the table and are blocking all progress," lamented one campaigner.
Jun 13, 2024
As the clock ticks down toward this November's COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan, the Bonn Climate Change Conference in Germany ended in a stalemate Thursday as nations were unable to agree on the size and scope of loss and damage financing and other issues.
This week's talks in Bonn yielded no significant progress on climate financing as the industrialized nations that are most responsible for the planetary emergency continued to try and shirk what Global South countries say is their responsibility to compensate those who suffer most but have emitted the least greenhouse gases.
"Developing countries need trillions in new public finance for adaptation, loss and damage, and for a just transition away from fossil fuels. But developed countries are not even offering crumbs from the table and are blocking all progress," said Friends of the Earth climate justice and energy campaigner Sara Shaw.
Loss and damage refers to funding meant to compensate developing nations for the destruction caused by the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis the world's poor played little role in creating.
"They want developing countries to accept loans which will further fuel debt, and are pushing already discredited carbon market finance schemes, which causes grave harm in the Global South," Shaw added. "This is a disaster."
Crux of #SB60 #climate finance discussions in Bonn highlighted in my take at the recent @CANIntl press conference.
Thank you @LossandDamage for capturing it.@fossiltreaty #ClimateJustice #ClimateEmergency pic.twitter.com/ynVV2R4g5N
— Harjeet Singh (@harjeet11) June 11, 2024
Referring to the upcoming U.N. Climate Change Conference, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said Thursday that the Bonn stalemate is "undermining the momentum needed to ensure strong outcomes at COP29, to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan in November."
"Discussions on climate finance lacked the urgency required for one of the most critical decisions to be finalized at COP29," WWF said of the Bonn conference. "A new funding goal for the period 2025 to 2035 is set to be agreed, in line with the terms of the Paris agreement."
"But developed countries have not yet given clear indication what they are considering contributing to developing countries for climate action, nor where the money will come from," the group added. "Concurrently, calls for urgently needed funding for adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage remain unfulfilled."
Greenpeace International climate politics expert Tracy Carty said in a statement Thursday that "rich developed countries talked at length about what they can't commit to and who else should pay, but failed to assure developing nations on their intent to significantly scale up financial support."
"Damning silence on what finance might be offered is stymying efforts to raise ambition and is a dereliction of duty to people battling climate-fueled storms, fires, and droughts," Carty added.
"Rich countries most responsible for this crisis must pay up for a fair fossil fuel phaseout and climate damages, without worsening unjust debts."
Developing nations have said they need around $400 billion annually for a loss and damage fund that they could tap to rebuild communities, restore crucial wildlife habitats, or relocate people displaced by the climate emergency. The United States has committed to a paltry $17.5 million for the global loss and damage fund. Developed nations have pledged approximately $661 million for loss and damage funding to date, according to the U.N. Development Program.
Laurie van der Burg, international public finance lead at Oil Change International, asserted that "the rich countries most responsible for this crisis must pay up for a fair fossil fuel phaseout and climate damages, without worsening unjust debts."
"We know they have more than enough money," van der Burg added. "It's just going to the wrong things."
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COP28 Stocktake Draft Reveals Vital Battle Over 'Unabated' Fossil Fuels
The draft offers "the fossil fuel industry a lifeline with dangerous distractions, like carbon capture and storage, and other abatement technologies," said one campaigner.
Dec 05, 2023
With a week left until the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference wraps up with a long-awaited "Global Stocktake" that will measure countries' progress towards the objectives of the Paris climate agreement, a draft of the document released Tuesday revealed a strong push to include a major loophole for the biggest fossil fuel producers—in the form of language that would allow so-called "abated" emissions.
More than 100 countries reportedly support a clause in the Global Stocktake that would call for "accelerating efforts toward phasing out unabated fossil fuels"—emissions that are not "captured" through technological fixes like carbon capture and storage (CCS) before they reach the atmosphere. That option in the text also calls on countries to "rapidly" reduce unabated fossil fuels "so as to achieve net zero CO2 in energy systems by or around mid-century."
The Biden administration, among other wealthy governments, has backed an expansion of CCS, offering $1.2 billion in grants for two projects this year. Analysts warn the technology would actually increase energy consumption by 20%, ultimately increasing the carbon emissions that CCS proponents claim are "abated" by the technology, as well as worsening environmental injustice by ramping up smog, benzene, and formaldehyde emissions in fenceline communities.
Other options in the draft text include a call for "an orderly and just phaseout of fossil fuels," which more than 25 countries support, according to BusinessGreen, and no mention at all of a phaseout.
Another paragraph in the draft included an agreement that countries will rapidly phase out "unabated coal power this decade" and ban the building of new coal power plants, and a second option would omit any mention of phasing out coal.
Romain Ioualalen, global policy manager for Oil Change International, acknowledged that just "three years ago, it would have been unimaginable to see governments consider an inclusion of fossil fuel phaseout in any [Conference of the Parties] agreement," which organizers and governments in the Global South have aggressively campaigned for in recent years.
The ultimate goal for the Global Stocktake, however, said Ioualalen, is "an agreement to immediately decline fossil fuel production and use... as well as a full, fast, fair, and funded fossil fuel phaseout."
The draft released on Wednesday goes in the opposite direction, he said, giving "the fossil fuel industry a lifeline with dangerous distractions, like carbon capture and storage, and other abatement technologies."
"We urge parties to hold a strong line against these failed technologies and refuse any language that allows fossil fuel companies to justify continued oil and gas extraction," said Ioualalen.
Pivoting to technologies like carbon capture and storage instead of focusing on sharply dialing down all carbon emissions, he added, would "blow us well past 1.5°C [in planetary heating], and lead to catastrophic climate consequences."
As author and 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben wrote in a column earlier this week, countries that are embracing technologies like CCS are playing into the hands of fossil fuel giants.
"It's abundantly clear that coal, oil, and gas are breaking the climate system; it's also abundantly clear that the people who own coal, oil, and gas reserves don't care," wrote McKibben. "In an effort to keep burning them, so they can continue to collect the returns, they propose building vast engineering projects alongside fossil-fuel generating plants, to capture the carbon dioxide from the exhaust stream. That is, they want to 'abate' the damage of their product."
Scientists have warned that eight years after the Paris climate agreement was finalized with a goal of limiting planetary heating to 1.5°C—or as far below 2°C as possible—the world is currently on track to warm by 3°C this century.
Global carbon emissions have continued to rise in recent years as countries including the U.S. and the U.K. have approved major fossil fuel projects despite warnings from energy and climate experts that oil, gas, and coal extraction have no place on a pathway to 1.5°C.
The final Global Stocktake, said Shirley Matheson, the World Wildlife Fund's global nationally-determined contribution enhancement coordinator, must force governments to "face up to the consequences of their collective inaction, and commit to strengthen climate ambition and action in line with limiting global warming to 1.5°C."
Matheson called the current draft "bloated" and expressed hope that countries in attendance at the conference (COP28) will adopt a Global Stocktake with the best options included in the draft.
"Good language on phasing out fossil fuels is included as an option, and new text options have been added that call for stronger ambition in the national climate plans, and a new collective goal for 60% emissions cuts by 2035," she said. "These signals are essential to create the conditions for more ambitious commitments and more international cooperation to achieve them."
"Time is running out for negotiators to agree on a draft text with clear political options for ministers later in the week," she added. "Countries must work together to achieve science-aligned guidance and ways forward for a dramatic course correction of climate action. This will give us the best chance of securing a livable planet."
As Common Dreams reported Wednesday, a record number of fossil fuel industry lobbyists are also attending COP28, leaving campaigners concerned that the final agreements out of the summit will include significant loopholes for the industry.
“Global leaders have to deliver a full package," said Ioualalen. "We will not accept weak outcomes only on coal or renewables, and without addressing the primary driver of the climate crisis, fossil fuels."
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Fears of Monarch Butterfly Extinction as Numbers Plummet 22% in Annual Count
"Despite heroic efforts... we could still lose these extraordinary butterflies by not taking bolder action," warned one conservationist.
Mar 22, 2023
Wildlife conservationists sounded the alarm Wednesday as an annual count of monarch butterflies revealed a sharp decline in the number of the iconic insects hibernating in Mexican forests, stoking renewed fears of their extinction.
The annual survey—led by Mexico's National Commission of Natural Protected Areas and the Mexican branch of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF)—showed a 22% drop in the hibernating monarch population amid accelerating habitat loss driven primarily by deforestation.
"Despite heroic efforts to save monarchs by planting milkweed, we could still lose these extraordinary butterflies by not taking bolder action," Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), said in a statement.
"Monarchs were once incredibly common," she added. "Now they're the face of the extinction crisis as U.S. populations crash amid habitat loss and the climate meltdown."
Renowned for its epic annual migrations from the northern U.S. and southern Canada to Florida, California, and Mexico, monarchs have suffered a precipitous plunge in population in North America this century.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the number of eastern monarchs fell from around 384 million in 1996 to 60 million in 2019, and in the West their numbers declined from 1.2 million in 1997 to fewer than 30,000 last year.
As CBD noted:
At the end of summer, eastern monarchs migrate from the northern United States and southern Canada to high-elevation fir forests in central Mexico. Scientists estimate the population size by measuring the area of trees turned orange by the clustering butterflies...The eastern population has been perilously low since 2008.
Last year, the International Union for Conservation of Nature formally listed the monarch butterfly as endangered, citing critical threats posed by the climate emergency, deforestation, pesticides, and logging.
(Graphic: Center for Biological Diversity)
In the United States, the Trump administration in 2020 placed monarchs on the wait list for consideration for Endangered Species Act protection. FWS has until next year to make a final listing determination.
"It is not just about conserving a species, it's also about conserving a unique migratory phenomenon in nature," said WWF Mexico general director Jorge Rickards. "Monarchs contribute to healthy and diverse terrestrial ecosystems across North America as they carry pollen from one plant to another."
"With 80% of agricultural food production depending on pollinators like monarchs, when people help the species, we are also helping ourselves," he added.
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COP15 Biodiversity Summit Highlights 'Deadly' US Attitude Toward the World
"While others play by the rules, the most powerful nation refuses," writes George Monbiot. "If this country were a person, we'd call it a psychopath. As it is not a person, we should call it what it is: a rogue state."
Dec 09, 2022
With a global biodiversity summit underway in Montreal, Guardian columnist George Monbiot on Friday took aim at the United States for its "active, and deadly, cavalier attitude" toward the rest of the world, "an example other nations follow."
"Its refusal to ratify treaties such as the Convention on Biological Diversity provides other nations with a permanent excuse to participate in name only."
Although U.S. President Joe Biden recently appointed Monica Medina as the first special envoy for biodiversity and water resources, and his administration is participating in the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United States is notably not a party to the treaty, which was drafted in 1992.
In fact, the United States is the only United Nations member state not to ratify the treaty. The other 192 U.N. countries, the European Union, Cook Islands, Niue, and Palestine are all parties to the CBD--leaving the U.S. in the company of just the Holy See, the government of the Roman Catholic Church.
Former President Bill Clinton signed the treaty in 1993, but U.S. ratification requires 67 votes in the Senate--in which Democrats secured a 51-seat majority with Sen. Raphael Warnock's runoff victory on Tuesday, only to have Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona leave the party and declare herself an Independent on Friday.
As Monbiot highlighted:
This is one of several major international treaties the U.S. has refused to ratify. Among the others are crucial instruments such as the Rome Statute on international crimes, the treaties banning cluster bombs and landmines, the convention on discrimination against women, the Basel Convention on hazardous waste, the Convention on the Law of the Sea, the nuclear test ban treaty, the Employment Policy Convention, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities.
In some cases, it is one of only a small number to refuse: The others are generally either impoverished states with little administrative capacity or vicious dictatorships. It is the only independent nation on Earth not to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Perhaps this is because it is the only nation to sentence children to life imprisonment without parole, among many other brutal policies. While others play by the rules, the most powerful nation refuses. If this country were a person, we'd call it a psychopath. As it is not a person, we should call it what it is: a rogue state.
Monbiot argued that "through its undemocratic dominance of global governance, the U.S. makes the rules, to a greater extent than any other state. It also does more than any other to prevent both their implementation and their enforcement. Its refusal to ratify treaties such as the Convention on Biological Diversity provides other nations with a permanent excuse to participate in name only. Like all imperial powers, its hegemony is expressed in the assertion of its right not to care."
"The question that assails those who strive for a kinder world is always the same but endlessly surprising: How do we persuade others to care?" he continued. "The lack of interest in resolving our existential crises, expressed by the U.S. Senate in particular, is not a passive exceptionalism. It is an active, proud, and furious refusal to care about the lives of others. This refusal has become the motive force of the old-new politics now sweeping the world. It appears to be driving a deadly, self-reinforcing political cycle."
After outlining an example of destructive farming practices in the Netherlands, Monbiot stressed the urgency of the current moment, writing that due to years of failures, "we now approach multiple drastic decision points, at which governments must either implement changes in months that should have happened over decades, or watch crucial components of civic life collapse, including the most important component of all: a habitable planet."
Scientists continue to raise alarm about the intertwined climate and biodiversity crises, warning that immediate, ambitious action must be taken on the global scale--including transforming agricultural and energy systems--to limit dangerous temperature increases and species loss.
"As we rush towards these precipices, we are likely to see an ever more violent refusal to care," Monbiot wrote. For example, rich nations have the "twin duties of care and responsibility" to accept refugees fleeing climate and ecological breakdown, but doing so "could trigger a new wave of reactive, far-right politics" that "would cut off meaningful environmental action."
"In other words, we face the threat of a self-perpetuating escalation of collapse," he concluded. "This is the spiral we must seek to break. With every missed opportunity--and the signs suggest that the Montreal summit might be another grave disappointment--the scope for gentle action diminishes and the rush towards drastic decisions accelerates. Some of us have campaigned for years for soft landings. But that time has now passed. We are in the era of hard landings. We must counter the rise of indifference with an overt and conspicuous politics of care."
The column comes as attendees and experts warn COP15 represents "the make-or-break moment" for the variety of life on Earth, given the rate at which species are disappearing--largely driven by "deforestation, overfishing, corporate agribusiness megafarming, and extraction of natural resources"--with major implications for humanity.
As Common Dreams reported earlier this week, advocates are pushing for a post-2020 global biodiversity framework (GBF) that includes:
- Protections for at least 30% of lands and waters by 2030;
- Policies to prevent or reduce invasive species by 50%;
- The elimination of plastic waste;
- The reduction of pesticides in the environment by at least two-thirds;
- The recognition of Indigenous peoples' rights and central role in protecting biodiversity; and
- At least $100 billion in annual funding for developing countries to protect wildlife, provided by wealthy governments.
While some are preparing for the Chinese-hosted conference in Canada to be another disappointment--one advocacy group on Monday published a report exposing corporate capture of not only the developing framework but all work related to the treaty over the past three decades--rich nations, including and especially the United States, are still facing pressure to step up.
Will Gartshore, World Wildlife Fund's senior director for government affairs and advocacy, said Monday that "WWF will continue advocating for the virtues of the U.S. joining the convention. But in the meantime, there is much that the U.S. can do to align itself with the goals of the agreement and ensure the success of the COP15 negotiations" and resulting framework.
Pointing to the "America the Beautiful" plan unveiled last year, Gartshore said that "the Biden administration has sent important signals about its commitment to halting and reversing nature loss by proposing to conserve 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 and by launching new initiatives to protect global forests, account for nature's economic value, and mobilize nature-based solutions to climate change."
"And by appointing the first-ever U.S. special envoy for biodiversity and water resources, the president has elevated the issue and put nature firmly on America's diplomatic agenda, alongside climate change," he continued. "All of these moves signal to other countries that the U.S. is in the game even if it is not directly at the negotiating table, and that they should strive for ambitious outcomes knowing the U.S. is taking commensurate actions of its own."
Gartshore added that "the other critical role the U.S. can play to further positive outcomes at COP15 and beyond is by mobilizing increased resources for the implementation of a global biodiversity framework and influencing other countries to do the same. As Congress works to finalize a U.S. government funding bill by the end of the year, WWF is making the case that it should include significant new resources to support the conservation of nature, particularly in developing countries that house much of our planet's remaining biodiversity."
Writing Thursday for Project Syndicate, former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) also noted the Biden administration's recent envoy appointment and embrace of the 30x30 goal, and called for the U.S. to positively contribute to what "may be the world's last best chance to reverse biodiversity loss."
According to Feingold:
Although the U.S. itself is not a party to the CBD--owing to bipartisan divisions and opposition from various interest groups--its heavyweight status affords it ample opportunities to contribute, including by influencing the debate over the final language of the framework.
Moreover, the U.S. can help build partnerships, influence key decision-makers, and create new incentives for conservation efforts around the world. It can advocate stronger incentives for country-specific commitments to achieve the most urgent conservation goals. It can help to secure the financing and funding pledges needed to support low- and middle-income countries' efforts to achieve global conservation goals and protect their local ecosystems. And it can integrate conservation into its international development policies, thus helping to offset the cost of biodiversity conservation in these countries.
While Monbiot declared in a tweet about his column that "the U.S. is leading by example--the worst possible example in an ecological emergency," Feingold suggested that "the Biden administration's recent initiatives could redefine America's conservation movement, enabling the U.S. to lead by example and set the standard for conservation on the continent."
"It is a country that can use its enormous power and global influence--be it economic, cultural, or political--to help the world shape a new and desperately needed global biodiversity framework," he added. "Despite divisions over other issues, the U.S. can achieve an internal consensus on the need to protect its great natural heritage, and to support the global conservation agenda through funding commitments and capacity-building initiatives. That consensus cannot come soon enough. With the clock ticking down, COP15 must be seen as an urgent wake-up call."
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'Lights Are Flashing Red': Study Finds 69% Average Drop in Animal Populations Since 1970
"We should care deeply about the unraveling of natural systems because these same resources sustain human life," said the World Wildlife Fund's global chief scientist.
Oct 13, 2022
A sweeping report published Thursday by one of the world's largest conservation groups finds that Earth's vertebrate animal populations experienced an average decline of nearly 70% between 1970 and 2018, a staggering drop that experts attribute to the worsening climate crisis, pollution, the large-scale destruction of forests, and continued human exploitation of wildlife.
The World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) Living Planet Report 2022, which the group calls its most comprehensive study to date, estimates that tens of thousands of monitored mammal, bird, amphibian, reptile, and fish populations have seen an average 69% decline in relative abundance over just a 50-year period, a blaring signal that the planet is in the midst of a devastating biodiversity crisis.
"When wildlife populations decline to this degree, it means dramatic changes are impacting their habitats and the food and water they rely on."
"The message is clear and the lights are flashing red," states the new report, which examines nearly 32,000 species populations across the planet--from the oceanic whitetip shark to the Amazon pink river dolphin to Darwin's frog--to spotlight what it describes as the twin emergencies of climate change and species decline.
"Climate change is having a dramatic impact on our natural environment," the report notes. "Some species are dying out while others are having to move where they live due to changes in air temperature, weather patterns, and sea levels. As well as being a direct driver of biodiversity loss, climate change also worsens the other drivers."
WWF warns that animal populations in its freshwater Living Planet Index "have been hit the hardest, declining by an average of 83%" thanks to myriad factors, including pollution and massive species exploitation. Regionally, Latin America--home to the rapidly deteriorating Amazon rainforest--has seen the largest decline in average population abundance at 94%.
"These plunges in wildlife populations can have dire consequences for our health and economies," said Rebecca Shaw, WWF's global chief scientist. "When wildlife populations decline to this degree, it means dramatic changes are impacting their habitats and the food and water they rely on. We should care deeply about the unraveling of natural systems because these same resources sustain human life."
As Vox's Benji Jones explains, WWF's topline figure of 69% average animal population decline "does not mean there are two-thirds fewer animals today compared to 50 years ago."
"It's not counting all the animals lost in each group and adding that up; it's measuring the relative size of the decline in each population and averaging it," Jones notes.
Still, WWF's findings paint a dire picture of the global wildlife emergency as scientists warn Earth may be in the midst of a "Sixth Mass Extinction," this one caused by the degradation of the natural world by the fossil fuel industry and other human activity.
The New York Times notes that some experts believe WWF's report "actually underestimates the global biodiversity crisis, in part because devastating declines in amphibians may be underrepresented in the data."
WWF's report comes as world leaders are set to gather for the second phase of COP15 talks in Montreal, Canada to negotiate a global framework to mitigate and reverse the accelerating biodiversity crisis. The first phase of the COP15 negotiations ended in disappointment, with climate campaigners decrying world leaders' lack of urgency in the face of plummeting species populations.
In a statement, WWF said the upcoming Montreal talks represent "a once-in-a-decade opportunity to course-correct for the sake of people and the planet."
"The U.S. government can help ensure that COP15 and the emerging 2030 Global Biodiversity Framework are successful through its diplomatic engagement and by bringing new resources to the table to help developing countries protect their biodiversity," the group argued.
Carter Roberts, president and CEO of WWF-US, urged Congress to "finalize this year's funding bills with significant increases for global conservation programs."
"Doing so," Roberts said, "would empower the federal government to drive greater progress in conserving and restoring nature, and send a signal to other countries that it expects other actors to do the same."
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Green Groups Blame Bolsonaro Policies as Amazon Deforestation Sets New Monthly Record
"The Bolsonaro administration is abetting deforestation and environmental crime," said one campaigner, "and what we harvest are these terrible, scary, revolting numbers."
May 06, 2022
Brazil's space research agency revealed Friday that deforestation in the country's Amazon rainforest last month shattered the previous record for April, a development one conservation campaigner called "very scary" and an indication of the criminal level of environmental destruction occurring under the administration of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.
"The Amazon is controlled by landowners, illegal loggers, and miners. Crime is the reality."
The National Institute for Space Research said nearly 400 square miles of the world's largest rainforest was destroyed in Brazil last month, an area the size of 1,400 soccer fields and by far the biggest loss for April since record-keeping began in 2015, Agence France-Presse reports.
It is the third monthly record set in the past four months, and represents a nearly 75% increase in forest loss over last April.
"This figure is extremely high for this period of the year," World Wide Fund for Nature (formerly World Wildlife Fund) science director Mariana Napolitano said in a statement. "It's an alert of the immense pressure the forest is under."
Suely Araujo, senior public policy specialist at the Climate Observatory, a network of environmental groups, told the Associated Press that "the April number is very scary. Due to the rain, it is traditionally a month with less deforestation."
"We need a regional development model that is compatible with environmental protection," she added. "The solution is not simply paving roads. The Amazon is controlled by landowners, illegal loggers, and miners. Crime is the reality."
Since Bolsonaro, a self-described "Captain Chainsaw," took office in 2019, average annual Amazon forest loss has soared by more than 75% from the previous decade. Green and human rights groups accuse Bolsonaro--who early in his administration declared that "the Amazon is open for business"--of encouraging the illegal logging, mining, and clearance for farming and cattle grazing that is devastating the Amazon.
Marcio Astrini, head of the Climate Observatory, told AFP that "the Bolsonaro administration is abetting deforestation and environmental crime, and what we harvest are these terrible, scary, revolting numbers."
Larissa Amorim, a researcher at the conservation group Imazon, says that "to combat deforestation, it is necessary to intensify inspections, especially in the most critical areas," and "apply fines and embargo illegally deforested areas."
However, according to a survey conducted by the monitoring platform MapBiomas in conjunction with the civil society group Instituto Centro de Vida and public data repository Brasil.IO, the government has failed to investigate 97% of deforestation alerts since 2019.
"The weakening of environmental inspection bodies is not by chance, it is a perverse project that has as one of the main results the prescription of environmental crimes without criminals being punished," Greenpeace Brazil Amazon coordinator Andre Freitas said in a statement Friday.
"With the certainty of impunity, what is already bad will get worse if bills that aim to legalize land grabbing, make environmental licensing more flexible, and open Indigenous lands for mining are approved," he added, referring to the so-called "package of destruction" supported by Bolsonaro and currently making its way through the National Congress.
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"It is necessary, once and for all," Freitas added, "to stop this mechanism that has been scrapping public agencies and invest in environmental inspection if we really want to keep the largest tropical forest in the world standing."
During an appearance last month at the Free Land Camp--site of a 10-day protest by over 170 Indigenous groups--Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the former leftist Brazilian president who is seeking to oust Bolsonaro in this October's election, vowed to immediately revoke the current government's policies, to ban mining on Indigenous lands, and to create a Ministry of Indigenous Peoples if he wins.
April's deforestation figures follow the publication in March of a study warning that the ability of the Amazon rainforest to recover from devastating droughts and wildfires has been declining over the past two decades, driving the crucial ecosystem toward a tipping point from which it might not recover.
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Rampant Tropical Forest Loss Belies COP26 Deforestation Pledge: Report
"Such losses are a disaster for the climate. They're a disaster for biodiversity. They're a disaster for Indigenous peoples and local communities."
Apr 28, 2022
The destruction of tens of thousands of square miles of Earth's tropical forests in 2021 underscores the challenge of fulfilling a pledge made by nations at last year's United Nations Climate Conference to halt deforestation by the end of the decade, a report published Thursday asserted.
"We have to dramatically reduce emissions from all sources."
According to the World Resources Institute's (WRI) Global Forest Review, the planet's tropical regions lost 11.1 million hectares, or 42,857 square miles, of primary old-growth forest in 2021, a total area roughly the size of the country of Bulgaria or the U.S. state of Virginia.
WRI senior fellow Frances Seymour told The Guardian that "such losses are a disaster for the climate. They're a disaster for biodiversity. They're a disaster for Indigenous peoples and local communities."
The WRI figure includes 3.75 million hectares of tropical primary rainforest loss--described by the report as "areas of critical importance for carbon storage and biodiversity"--or the equivalent of 10 soccer fields per minute. Last year's tropical primary forest loss resulted in the release of 2.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of India's total annual fossil fuel emissions.
With more than 1.5 million hectares destroyed, Brazil lost the most tropical primary forest by far last year, followed by Congo (499,059 hectares), Bolivia (291,379 hectares), and Indonesia (202,905 hectares). In terms of percentage of tropical primary forest lost, Cambodia led the world with 1.5%, followed by Laos (1%) and Bolivia (0.7%).
The report also notes record losses of boreal forests, mainly in Russia, which suffered the worst wildfire season in recorded history.
In addition to fueling the climate emergency by releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, deforestation degrades land, increases flooding, alters weather patterns, and harms biodiversity through habitat destruction.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, clearing trees for cattle grazing is by far the leading driver of deforestation, with scientists attributing 80% of Brazilian Amazon rainforest loss to the beef industry.
The report says the world has made little progress toward fulfilling a pledge by more than 140 countries attending COP26--last year's U.N. summit in Glasgow, Scotland--to "halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030," a goal that "will require a consistent decline in forest loss every year for the rest of the decade--a decline that is not yet happening in the tropics as a whole."
However, the publication does highlight some success stories. Primary forest loss has declined significantly in Indonesia and Malaysia, while countries including Gabon and Guyana have lost 1% or less of their primary forests over the past two decades.
The WRI report follows research published last month warning that the ability of the Amazon rainforest to recover from droughts and wildfires has been declining over the past two decades, driving the crucial ecosystem toward what authors called a "critical transformation" from forest to grassland, a shift that would have "profound" consequences.
"That would release enough carbon into the atmosphere to blow the Paris agreement goals right out of the water," said Seymour.
"We have to dramatically reduce emissions from all sources," she added. "No one should even think anymore about planting trees instead of reducing emissions from fossil fuels. It's got to be both and it's got to be now before it's too late."
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