The world at the limit: a million species are in danger

A horrible panorama, but

even under inversion conditions.

This is the mix of information and sensations in which you can summarize the report that was released today.
Intergovernmental Science and Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (Ipbes) after
a week of negotiations and discussions word for word in Paris.

In the complex and problematic scenario for the same human livelihood, there is the essential fact that there are a million endangered species and that it is a number that s & # 39; 39; accelerating. That is, there are more and more animals and vegetables in this category. But the conclusions, drawn from thousands of scientific reports (about 15,000, compiled by 145 scientists from 50 countries), also indicate that 75% of terrestrial ecosystems and 66% of seafarers have been altered by human actions (a little less in indigenous communities); land degradation has reduced the productivity of 23% of land; urban areas have doubled since 1992, and plastic pollution has increased ten-fold since 1980, including too many points.

What Ipbes seeks to emphasize is that it is not about nature as an abstraction, nor about something that exists where the cities end. In addition, human life, its cultural and civilizational possibilities, are affected. "We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, lifestyles, food security, health and quality of life around the world." The health of the ecosystems on which our species and all others depend is deteriorating ever faster, "said Robert Watson, president of Ipbes.Shrinking, deterioration or extinction also includes varieties of plants and animals domesticated, which also has consequences for the economies.

The context

The Ipbes is for biodiversity what the IPCC is for climate change: a science-based multilateral organization with the participation of politicians and diplomats. This is the first time that it presents such a report on the state of biodiversity and ecosystem services, based on the changes observed over the past five decades and a range of possible scenarios for the future. Designed for "policy makers", it presents a forty page summary and highlights the importance of local and indigenous knowledge to preserve this seemingly elusive nature.

Given its political and proactive status, the report states that there is still a margin of action, despite the multiple degradation. He explains that "it is not too late, if we work locally and globally, nature can be conserved, restored and used in a sustainable way". In addition, it is stated that reference is made to "fundamental change, to a vast reorganization of the technological, economic and social systems, including paradigms, objectives and values". It mentions integrated and intersectoral management approaches that take into account trade between food production, energy, infrastructure, drinking water and biodiversity conservation. It also highlights the need to "move away from the current and limited paradigm of economic growth", which is little discussed in the guild of economists.

Another equally notable problem is that although there is a link between biodiversity loss and climate change, it ranks third among the causes reported in the report on biodiversity loss after change of use. land (euphemism for deforestation) and the direct exploitation of other organisms by man. Fourth, pollution and invasive species appear, becoming a plague (like the beavers of Tierra del Fuego, to name only one well-known Argentine example).

Argentinean voice

Sandra Diaz, the Argentine biologist who co-chaired the report – along with German Josef Settele and the Brazilian-American Eduardo Brondízio – said yesterday during a dialogue with Latin American journalists that he " was an unpublished report in several aspects ". First, because – like the IPCC for climate change mentioned above – it is endorsed by 130 governments around the world. "And the amount of evidence that supports them is unprecedented, the prospects are really very conclusive: the plot of life on a global scale is deteriorating very quickly, it's not just a bad new to nature, but to everyone.The report shows that all aspects of life are closely related to the rest of the living world, even if we do not realize it or live on the sixteenth floor of a capital city, the food we place in the continuity of cultural life is affected, "said Díaz, professor at the National University of Córdoba and researcher at Conicet.

Díaz pointed out that this report also offers hope. "All is not lost, if we change what we do, if there is a fundamental change, there is the possibility of a just and lasting planet." Can this change be made in the current global panorama of social relations and trade? "If we continue in this way, no, with the thirty-year forecast of current activity, there is no way to achieve the goals of minimal biodiversity protection, well-being to be for all and mitigating drastic climate change, not only attack the symptoms of the problem, for example, create protected areas or restore, you have to do it, that's fine, but that's all. is attacking the symptom: economy, trade, governance, organization of consumption and collateral impacts of consumption, there is no option, the other is to give up the plot of life on Earth.