Bad, and getting worse

Gray whale diving, Bahia Magdalena, Lopez Mateos, Baja California Sur.

While we know that nature is good for us, that we need biodiverse habitats in order to support the diverse array of ecosystems services upon which we rely, we continue to allow for significant declines in species diversity around the globe.  A new Report by the UN, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), finds that global biodiversity  is declining at an alarming and accelerating rate.  The Summary of the Report suggests that 1 million species are threatened with extinction.  The full Report, the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, is expected out later this year (and expected to exceed 1500 pages, including data).  The Summer Report paints a bleak picture.

• The average abundance of native species in land-based habitats has fallen by at least 20%,
• Over 40% of amphibian species, almost 33% of reef-forming corals, and 1/3 of marine mammals are threatened with extinction,
• A tentative estimate suggest that 10% of insects are threatened,
• More than 9% of domestic mammals used for food/agriculture could soon be extinct, with at least 1000 more breeds threatened.

The primary drivers behind these trends are not a surprise, at least not to me, as I preached the threats posed by these drivers for years in my conservation biology classes.  The primary drivers of species decline include, 1) changes in land and sea use, 2) overexploitation, 3) climate change, 4) pollution, and 5) invasive exotic species.  While there is time, the clock is ticking, and each and every day, more species become threatened, and many become extinction.  And extinction is forever, once a species is gone, that is it.

     "... when the last individual of a race of living things breathes no more, another heaven and another earth must pass before such a one can be again." (William Beebe)

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