{"id":169336,"date":"2020-09-28T12:00:08","date_gmt":"2020-09-28T11:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=169336"},"modified":"2020-09-24T08:19:11","modified_gmt":"2020-09-24T07:19:11","slug":"the-dying-planet-report-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/09\/the-dying-planet-report-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dying Planet Report 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Image by Bela Geletneky from Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

24 Sep 2020 – <\/em>The World Wildlife Foundation, in collaboration with the Zoological Society of London, recently issued an eye-popping description of the forces of humanity versus life in nature, the Living Planet Report 2020, but the report should really be entitled the Dying Planet Report 2020 because that\u2019s what\u2019s happening in the real world. Not much remains alive.<\/p>\n

The report, released September 10th, describes how the over-exploitation of ecological resources by humanity from 1970 to 2016 has contributed to a 68% plunge in wild vertebrate populations, inclusive of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish.<\/p>\n

The report offers a fix-it: \u201cBending the Curve Initiative,\u201d described in more detail to follow. The causes of the collapse are found in human recklessness and\/or neglect of ecosystems. It\u2019s partially fixable (maybe) but don\u2019t hold your breath.<\/p>\n

What if stocks plunged 68%? What then? Why, of course, that is an all-hands-on-deck panic scenario with the Federal Reserve Bank repeatedly pressing \u201ca white-hot printing press button,\u201d hopefully, avoiding destructive deflationary forces looming in the background. But, an astounding jaw-dropping 68% loss of vertebrates doesn\u2019t seem to budge the panic needle nearly enough to count.<\/p>\n

Of special note, according to the Report, tropical sub-regions were clobbered, hit hard with 94% loss of vertebrate life, which is essentially total extinction. For comparison purposes, the worst extinction event in history, the Permian-Triassic, aka the Great Dying, of 252 million years ago took down 96% of marine life and has been classified as \u201cglobal annihilation.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Report, on a worldwide basis, two-thirds (2\/3rds) of wild vertebrate life has vanished in only 46 years or within one-half a human lifetime. That is mind-boggling, and it is indicative of misguided mindlessness, prompting a query of what the next 46 years will bring. What remains is an operative question?<\/p>\n

According to the report: \u201cUntil 1970, humanity\u2019s Ecological Footprint was smaller than the Earth\u2019s rate of regeneration. To feed and fuel our 21st century, we are overusing the Earth\u2019s biocapacity by at least 56%.\u201d (Report, page 6) Meaning, we\u2019ve gone from equilibrium to a huge deficit of 50% in less than 50 years. Putting it mildly, that\u2019s terrifying!<\/p>\n

As stated in the Report, we\u2019re effectively using and abusing and trampling the equivalence of one and one-half planets. How long does that last? The experience of the past 46 years provides an answer, which is: Not much longer.<\/p>\n

The denuding, destructing of natural biodiversity is almost beyond description, certainly beyond human comprehension, which may be a big part of the problem of recognition. Still, by and large, people read the World Wildlife Foundation report and continue on with business as usual. This lackadaisical behavior by the public has been ongoing for decades and not likely to end anytime soon. Therefore, an eureka moment of radical change in farming practices and ecosystem husbandry is almost too much to wish for after years, and years, of preaching by environmentalists about the ills associated with the anthropogenic growth machine.<\/p>\n

In all, with ever-faster approaching finality, and worldwide failure to act to save the planet, the answer may be that people must learn to adapt to a deteriorating world.<\/p>\n

More to the point, the Report is \u201can extermination report.\u201d Consider the opening sentence: \u201cAt a time when the world is reeling from the deepest global disruption and health crisis of a lifetime, this year\u2019s Living Planet Report provides unequivocal and alarming evidence that nature is unraveling and that our planet is flashing red warning signs of vital natural systems failure.\u201d (Report, page 4) Accordingly, unequivocally \u201cnature is unraveling.\u201d And, the planet is \u201cflashing red warning signs of vital natural systems failure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why repeat that disheartening info? Simply put, it demands repeating over and over again. Yes, \u201cnature is unraveling.\u201d And, by all indications, time is short as \u201cflashing red warning signs\u201d are crying for help. But, will it happen? Or, does biz as usual rattle onwards towards total extinction of life way ahead of anybody\u2019s best guess, which, based upon how rapidly the forces of the Anthropocene are gobbling up the countryside, could be within current lifetimes. But, honestly, who knows when?
\nStill, with great hope but not enough fanfare, the Report proposes a new research initiative called \u201cBending the Curve Initiative\u201d to reverse biodiversity loss via (1) unprecedented conservation measures and (2) a total remake of food production techniques.<\/p>\n

One of the upshots of the breakdown in nature is the issue of \u201cadequate food for humanity.\u201d Accordingly: \u201cWhere and how we produce food is one of the biggest human-caused threats to nature and to our ecosystems, making the transformation of our global food system more important than ever,\u201d Ibid Which implies the end of rainforests obliteration, the end of industrial farming, full stop, eliminating mono-crop farming, and \u201cstopping dead in its tracks\u201d the use of toxic, deadly insecticides, which kill crucial life-originating ecosystems by bucketloads, as for example, 75% loss of flying insects over 27 years in nature reserves in portions of Europe (Source: Krefeld Entomological Society, est. 1905). What kills 75% of flying insects?<\/p>\n

Additionally, the Report recognizes the necessity of the \u201ctransformation of the prevailing economic system.\u201d Meaning, a transformation away from the radical infinite growth hormones that are attached to the world\u2019s lowest offshore wages and lowest offshore regulations as an outgrowth of neoliberalism, which is rapidly destroying the world. It\u2019s a terminal illness that\u2019s fully recognized around the world as \u201cprogress.\u201d But, its unrelenting disregard for the health of ecosystems and for workers\u2019 rights makes it a serial killer.<\/p>\n

The wonderful world of nature is not part of the neoliberal capitalistic formula for success. In fact, nature with its life-sourcing ecosystems is treated like an adversary or like one more prop to use and abuse on the way to infinite progress. Really?<\/p>\n

The Report alerts to the dangers of a \u201cbusiness as usual world,\u201d an epithet that is also found throughout climate change literature. These warnings of an impending loss of ecosystems, and by extension survival of Homo sapiens, depict a biosphere on a hot seat never before seen throughout human history. In fact, there is no time in recorded history that compares to the dangers immediately ahead. The most common watchword used by scientists is \u201cunprecedented.\u201d The change happens so rapidly, so powerfully. It\u2019s unprecedented.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, people are shielded from the complexities, and heartaches, of collapsing ecosystems in today\u2019s world by the artificiality of living a life of steel, glass, wood, cement, as the surrounding world collapses in a virtual sea of untested chemicals.<\/p>\n

In the end, humans are the last vertebrates on the planet to directly feel and experience the impact of climate change and ecosystems collapsing. All of the other vertebrates are first in line. Maybe that\u2019s for the best.<\/p>\n

Still, how many more 68% plunges in wild vertebrate populations can civilized society handle and remain sane and well-fed?<\/p>\n

_________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Robert Hunziker –\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/strong>MA, economic history DePaul University, awarded membership in Pi Gamma Mu International Academic Honor Society in Social Sciences is a freelance writer and environmental journalist who has over 200 articles published, including several translated into foreign languages, appearing in over 50 journals, magazines, and sites worldwide. He has been interviewed on numerous FM radio programs, as well as television.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – pressenza.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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