A million species are threatened with a fast-pace extinction, according to a UN report that calls for a profound change in society to repair the damage to nature.
In this unprecedented text published on Monday, the UN group of experts on biodiversity (IPBES) poses a bleak picture for the future of the human being, who depends on nature to breathe, drink, eat, warm up and even heal.
We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, our livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life around the world,”
warned Robert Watson, president of IPBES.
Deforestation, intensive agriculture, overfishing, galloping urbanization, mines… 75% of the terrestrial environment is “seriously altered” by human activity, while 66% of the seafarer is also affected.
The result: one million animal and plant species of the estimated eight million on Earth are threatened with extinction and many could disappear in the coming decades.
A finding in accordance with what many scientists describe as the beginning of the sixth “mass extinction” -a term not mentioned in the report- and the first of which the man is responsible.
But it would also be the first that could be stopped if we act decisively now,”
according to Mark Tercek, president of the NGO Nature Conservancy.
The report in which 450 experts worked for three years identifies the five main responsible for this order: the use of land (agriculture, deforestation), direct exploitation of resources (fishing, hunting), climate change, pollution and invasive species.
First objective: the agri-food system. Feeding 10 billion people in 2050 in a “sustainable” way implies a transformation of agricultural production (agroecology, better water management) but also in consumption habits (diet, waste), according to the report.
We applaud this call for a change in diets, towards plant-based diets to reduce the consumption of meat and dairy products, whose negative impacts on biodiversity, climate change and human health they are well known,”
said Eric Darier of Greenpeace.
However, in the final text of IPBES there is no direct call to eat less meat, which probably indicates that some producing countries opposed this.