The authors stress that whatever losses humans inflict on nature will in turn be inflicted upon us.
A landmark UN report on the state of Nature released Monday shows how humanity has wreaked havoc on the environment, undercutting Earth’s essential life-support systems.
As our population swells, so does mankind’s consumption. The report depicts a world ravaged by an insatiable demand for resources. What’s worse, half of all new agricultural land is taken from forests, the lungs of the planet that suck greenhouse gases from the air. In total, we extract around 60 billion tonnes of natural resources from the Earth every year — a rise of 80 percent in a matter of decades.We dump up to 400 million tonnes of heavy metals, toxic sludge and other waste into oceans and rivers each year.
Our plastic production has increased 10-fold since 1990 and the use of fertilisers — which poison ecosystems and wreck soil’s CO2-absorption rates — has doubled in just 13 years.The report’s story of Earth is also one of rife inequality, with richer nations consuming vastly more per capita than poorer ones battling to retain their natural resources.
What’s more, the world’s oceans and forests absorb more than half of our greenhouse gas emissions, which have doubled since 1980 contributing to a 0.7 Celsius global temperature rise.
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