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End the financial system that fuels the planet's destruction
Governments subsidize and incentivize environmental destruction through direct payments, tax breaks, and cheap loans to corporations that clear-cut, overfish, pollute and destabilize the climate through fossil fuel emissions.
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Energy venture: The coal-fired power plant of PT. Bhimasena Power Indonesia in Batang, Central Java, appears in this handout photo taken on Dec. 6, 2023. The independent power producer is owned by Indonesia’s Adaro Energy and Japan’s J-Power and Itochu Corporation. (Antara/PT. Bhimasena Power Indonesia Batang)
B
eing in the wonder of nature often sparks those profound moments that connect us to the essence of life and briefly align us with ecological wisdom that brings us into a sense of harmony with our planet.
Our encounters with nature and its rich biodiversity – the diversity and variability of life on Earth - lead us to reevaluate our relationship with the environment and to embrace a balance of give and take, mutual respect and interconnectedness.
Despite technological advances, our understanding of the Earth's biodiversity remains incomplete. However, we can speak with certainty about the alarming rate of human-induced biodiversity loss, with one study suggesting that species are now dying at rates up to 1,000 times higher than in the 60 million years before humans arrived.
But good news has just emerged in a landmark study showing that conservation projects are effective in halting and even reversing species loss.
The authors of the first-of-its-kind research, published in April in the journal Science, analyzed 186 previous studies covering a century of biodiversity efforts. The studies took place around the world and looked at many types of projects, including efforts to control invasive species, reduce deforestation and protect land from development. In two-thirds of the cases, the efforts either improved biodiversity or slowed its decline.
But these efforts will only succeed in reversing biodiversity loss if we scale them up rapidly. In 2022, a total of 196 countries committed to halting and reversing biodiversity loss and putting nature on a path to recovery by 2030, for the benefit of people and the planet.
Unfortunately, these conservation initiatives are being completely undermined around the globe by the trillions of dollars that governments are allowing to flow to the very industries that are driving us over an environmental cliff. This must stop.
