Biodiversity falls below ‘safe levels’ globally

“This is the first time we’ve quantified the effect of habitat loss on biodiversity globally in such detail and we’ve found that across most of the world biodiversity loss is no longer within the safe limit suggested by ecologists” explained lead researcher, Dr Tim Newbold from UCL and previously at UNEP-WCMC.

“We know biodiversity loss affects ecosystem function but how it does this is not entirely clear. What we do know is that in many parts of the world, we are approaching a situation where human intervention might be needed to sustain ecosystem function.”

The team found that grasslands, savannas and shrublands were most affected by biodiversity loss, followed closely by many of the world’s forests and woodlands. They say the ability of biodiversity in these areas to support key ecosystem functions such as growth of living organisms and nutrient cycling has become increasingly uncertain.

The study, published today in Science, led by researchers from UCL, the Natural History Museum and UNEP-WCMC, found that levels of biodiversity loss are so high that if left unchecked, they could undermine efforts towards long-term sustainable development.

For 58.1% of the world’s land surface, which is home to 71.4% of the global population, the level of biodiversity loss is substantial enough to question the ability of ecosystems to support human societies. The loss is due to changes in land use and puts levels of biodiversity beyond the ‘safe limit’ recently proposed by the planetary boundaries – an international framework that defines a safe operating space for humanity.

“It’s worrying that land use has already pushed biodiversity below the level proposed as a safe limit,” said Professor Andy Purvis of the Natural History Museum, London, who also worked on the study.

“Decision-makers worry a lot about economic recessions, but an ecological recession could have even worse consequences – and the biodiversity damage we’ve had means we’re at risk of that happening. Until and unless we can bring biodiversity back up, we’re playing ecological roulette.”

The team used data from hundreds of scientists across the globe to analyse 2.38 million records for 39,123 species at 18,659 sites where are captured in the database of the PREDICTS project. The analyses were then applied to estimate how biodiversity in every square kilometre land has changed since before humans modified the habitat.

They found that biodiversity hotspots – those that have seen habitat loss in the past but have a lot of species only found in that area – are threatened, showing high levels of biodiversity decline. Other high biodiversity areas, such as Amazonia, which have seen no land use change have higher levels of biodiversity and more scope for proactive conservation.

“The greatest changes have happened in those places where most people live, which might affect physical and psychological wellbeing. To address this, we would have to preserve the remaining areas of natural vegetation and restore human-used lands,” added Dr Newbold.

The team hope the results will be used to inform conservation policy, nationally and internationally, and to facilitate this, have made the maps from this paper and all of the underlying data publicly available.

PHYS.org

14 Comments on "Biodiversity falls below ‘safe levels’ globally"

Davy on Fri, 15th Jul 2016 6:23 am 



Have you ever hear of succession in ecosystems? That is what we are involved in. Nothing wrong with succession and it is a natural part of ecosystem cycles. The problem from our human point of view is we are accelerating the rate of change in a nonlinear rate and that is the problem. Nature can change over time without losing too much complexity but the human forcing is a different story.

The actual problem is much worse than science can understand because the scientific process is slow to understand to maintain accuracy. We are aware of the really bad but science is loath to say too much just yet. The speed of change is blowing the scientific process out of the water of accuracy. There is species and habitat loss individually but then there is the summation of many occurrences that converge and negatively impact the entire ecosystem. The entire global ecosystem is collapsing from accelerated and cascading tipping points in multiple areas. Nothing could be worse. We have the luxury of time before the horrible but very little.

The damage has been done at all levels and it is irreparable. We have a new destructive change paradigm from here forward with biodiversity and climate. We are heading into a period of extinction which means an ecosystem of less beauty and complexity. Nature could give a shit about this because this is part of her evolutionary process with extinction and growth. Where it hurts is with humans who want the cake and to eat it. We want this hyper advanced society and beauty with diversity and ecosystem health. Instead we are getting destruction and soon hyper drop in complexity of our human civilization. Instead of wonderfully having cake and eating it we are eating cake and getting sick from it and puking it back up.

Modern man’s mind games of technology, efficiency, and development are like a drunken binge without consideration of a hangover. We have had a social narrative that growth in all its forms are good eventually. More innovation and efficiency is always better is the thinking at all levels. We acknowledge the bad side effects but claim more of the same with a little time will solve any problems from our modernism. Until very recently there was never any significant talk of degrowth only better growth. Just now when it is too late we are talking about degrowth. That stall was opened and the animals are out in the field. Too late is too late. Let’s stop the denial and get with the adaptation and mitigation.

The mind game at the level of the entire human species is now ending with undeniable destruction leaving us with the scary existential questions of survival continually popping up. We are now talking about extinction because of who and what we are. Society is not there yet but people who are embracing the truth are acknowledging this. There can be life without biodiversity but not the kind of life humans want.

It is too late to do anything now except prepare individually and locally to live in a destroyed world of less. We could take what we built up and make it more habitable for this dangerous time. Instead we are producing more of the same with the same failed ideologies. We are an extinction species that destroys instead we want to think we are exceptional, pathetic really. A large brain species appears to be an evolutionary dead end. Science will figure that out when the last scientist is about to die.

Hello on Fri, 15th Jul 2016 9:27 am 



Davy:
There’s nothing to prepare individually. You and everybody else are sitting on the same titanic. And it’s heading for the berg. Whether you have a perma-garden cultivated on the upper deck protected by machine gun pillboxes or not doesn’t make a difference. The boat is going down.

Davy on Fri, 15th Jul 2016 10:25 am 



Hello, you like to lightly scan what people say then put your lightly scanned understanding into a rebuttal comment. I say this because if you have ever read what I have said you would know that I know I am going down too. My point is how are you planning l to go down. There is a big difference how you want to spend your last days. Quality of life near the end does not come free. Efforts must be made now and even then the element of luck must be present.

Kenz300 on Fri, 15th Jul 2016 11:07 am 



Pope Francis’s edict on climate change will anger deniers and US churches | World news | The Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/27/pope-francis-edict-climate-change-us-rightwing

Head Of The Episcopal Church Says It’s ‘Sinful’ To Ignore Climate Change

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/26/katherine-jefferts-schori-climate-change_n_6949532.html?utm_hp_ref=green&ir=Green

Apneaman on Fri, 15th Jul 2016 11:46 am 



This young lady has no problem grasping the repercussions of extincting just one keystone species through human habit destruction. She is in grade 7 and this is her simple online presentation explaining the interconnectedness of the web of life. It appears that once adulthood is reached most get real fucking stupid in a hurry or always were.

Salmon – A Keystone Species
Gr. 7 Science
by Jessica Hanna

“A Keystone Species Salmon – When the salmon spawn, they feed the wolves, bears, eagles and ravens.
They leap out of the streams and are pulled onto the shorelines by their hungry captors. Gray wolves drag the salmon carcasses even farther into the forest, where they feed thousands upon thousands of insects and microorganisms. The decaying fish release nitrogen, nature’s super-fertilizer, into the soil around them. It’s this high concentration of salmon-derived nitrogen that allows the trees along the coast and up through the river valleys to grow so large. In turn, these giant Sitka spruce and red cedar trees create havens for eagles above and wolves below. It’s a land of plenty, an intricate web of life where each organism is uniquely supported by those surrounding it. Fish Fertilizer: Shimmy to the top of any
Sitka spruce along the coastal waterways.”

https://prezi.com/7q8b1a5bbuyp/salmon-a-keystone-species/

In a better world, Jessica might grow up to be a wildlife biologist. She be luck to see 35 now and her last 5-10 years will probably suck big time.

Web of life unravelling, wildlife biologist says

“Wildlife biologist Neil Dawe says he wouldn’t be surprised if the generation after him witnesses the extinction of humanity.

All around him, even in a place as beautiful as the Little Qualicum River estuary, his office for 30 years as a biologist for the Canadian Wildlife Service, he sees the unravelling of “the web of life.”

“It’s happening very quickly,” he says.”

“People will focus on the extinction of a species but not “the overall impact,” he says. When habitat diversity is lost, “it changes the whole dynamic.”

“He isn’t hopeful humans will rise to the challenge and save themselves.

“Everything is worse and we’re still doing the same things,” he says.

“Because ecosystems are so resilient, they don’t exact immediate punishment on the stupid.”

https://web.archive.org/web/20150425132240/http://www.oceansidestar.com/news/web-of-life-unravelling-wildlife-biologist-says-1.605499

“Because ecosystems are so resilient, they don’t exact immediate punishment on the stupid.”

“Because ecosystems are so resilient, they don’t exact immediate punishment on the stupid.”

“Because ecosystems are so resilient, they don’t exact immediate punishment on the stupid.”

“Because ecosystems are so resilient, they don’t exact immediate punishment on the stupid.”

Apneaman on Fri, 15th Jul 2016 1:23 pm 



Baked Alaska: Heat records shattered across state

http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2016/07/14/alaska-heat-records/87086826/

Apneaman on Fri, 15th Jul 2016 1:24 pm 



Study finds Greenland lost 1 trillion tons of ice in just 4 years

https://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/efce000f249c367917c116cbf3017919.htm

HARM on Fri, 15th Jul 2016 3:06 pm 



“It appears that once adulthood is reached most get real fucking stupid in a hurry or always were.”

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on not understanding it.”
–Upton Sinclair

HARM on Fri, 15th Jul 2016 3:15 pm 



Not to mention that the biological imperative to reproduce and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs trumps any distant (to human eyes) concerns about nebulous and hard-to-grasp (to most non-scientists) environmental damage.

Average person thinks about immediate short-term problems and needs/wants (family, food, shelter, job, health, shopping, etc.) and is biologically hard-wired to give those things priority over everything else. Nothing can be done about it save re-programming everyone’s DNA to make them less inherently selfish and short-term focused, better at grasping difficult concepts, and to care more about environmental consequences and other species than their own selfish needs.

A billion years of evolution has done its job –we’re screwed.

Apneaman on Fri, 15th Jul 2016 4:40 pm 



HARM, scientists suffer from short termisim too in regards to their personal lives and they still must navigate institutional politics like everyone else. Most have kids, spouse, mortgage, bills, status, job security, etc. Sure using the scientific method in their research is a shield against the humans many inherent cognitive biases, but they still live in the real world and there have been many great scientists whose personal lives were in shambles just like anyone else. Thinking scientifically is counter intuitive to the human experience and it obviously does not automatically cross over to every thought and action in every aspect of their non professional lives. Isaac Newton was one of the most brilliant scientists ever, but he was also a religious nut job, believed in some real whacked out alchemy shit and apparently was an asshole of a human being.

Kevin Anderson is a fine scientist and boldly honest. He has talked about how these effects can be seen in scientists everyday.

Scientific community is self-censoring research to conform to views of vested interests

https://citizenactionmonitor.wordpress.com/2015/10/17/scientific-community-is-self-censoring-research-to-conform-to-views-of-vested-interests/

Also, you don’t need a degree to think like a scientist. All the rules of logic and rational thinking, from the ancient Greeks to the scientific method are freely available on the tubes or library for anyone to learn. Study and practice, honesty and curiosity is how to do it. Don’t need anyone’s permission or approval.

ellsworth on Fri, 15th Jul 2016 5:04 pm 



“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”
Max Planck

JGav on Fri, 15th Jul 2016 5:49 pm 



Davy – Yes, I do know about succession in eco-systems. But, “The damage has been done at all levels and is irreparable” doesn’t cover all of what I find to be an interesting part of today’s reality. No or minimal tillage farming, bringing back arid wastelands in India or Latin America through new grazing techniques, agroforestry, etc.

Granted, the ‘damage’ is massive but the people out there doing something about it deserve some credit. In India, for example, a mass movement recently planted 50 million trees – okay, not huge on the scale of that country, but still a move in the right direction.

I’m no ‘positive-thinking’ freak; nevertheless, there is a growing number
who’ve understood what it’s really all about: bringing back degraded soil, maintaining wetland and hedge-rows, using woodlands as a source of nourishment -in short – Feeding ourselves! because our oh-so-convenient supermarkets probably won’t be there in less time than most realize. I’d give it maybe a generation …and a tough one at that.

Please note that I’m not denying what I call the ‘inextricable’ aspect of a certain degree of social, cultural and even civilizational decay (already en route), nor the possiblity that said decay may accelerate in ways that would make it very difficult to manage.

Just that I also wanted to mention that alternative movements are afoot and, though hardly visible in the ‘mainstream,’ are holding their ground and sometimes gaining ground. I salute those efforts.

Davy on Fri, 15th Jul 2016 7:48 pm 



Yea, Gav, I know I am a part of the alternative movement you speak of. I hope we are the monasteries of some kind of recovery post collapse. I guess I was referring to the beauty that is lost. This planet was amazing place pre-industrial man and now so much has been destroyed. Everywhere in the world beauty is gone and or going. You are correct though people are changing for the better but I am afraid nothing can scale to what is coming. Good point though because complete defeatism just buys us an earlier grave.

Kenz300 on Sat, 16th Jul 2016 5:51 am 



Watch The Climate Change Ad Fox News Didn’t Want Its Viewers To See’

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/climate-change-ad-fox-news_us_57892a37e4b03fc3ee50c207?section=