Sensitive viewers,
welcome to Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home.
Scientific experts fear
that our world is
in the midst of
its sixth mass extinction
and say its cause
is human actions.
In a two-part series we’ll
explore the challenges
facing biodiversity
worldwide including
the extreme dangers
posed by global warming,
the necessity
of species preservation
to ensure the survival
of humankind as well as
the most effective tools for
biodiversity conservation
and mitigating
climate change.
Biodiversity, it’s an issue
which was sometimes
too much in the shadow.
Also in the shadow of
climate change,
which is extremely important,
but we should understand
that biodiversity
is actually the other side
of the same coin.
A study published
in the US journal Science
examined
the biodiversity levels
between 1954 and 2004
in the UK as measured by
approximately 20,000
British government-funded
naturalists who collected
data on the nation’s
native butterflies, birds
and plants.
It was found that between
1974 and 2004, 70%
of the butterfly species
saw population declines
as did 54% of bird species
and 28% of plant species.
In 2004, the International
Union for the Conservation
of Nature (IUCN),
which publishes
the well-known Red List
of Threatened Species
estimated in a report
entitled “A Global
Species Assessment”
that plants and animals
are going extinct
100 to 1,000 times faster
than the background rate,
or the natural rate
of extinction before
humans became
the primary cause
of extinctions,
based on fossil records.
In early October 2010,
Simon Stuart, chair of
the International Union
for the Conservation
of Nature’s Species
Survival Commission
pointed out that prominent
Harvard University, USA
biologist Dr. EO Wilson’s
previous estimates
that within two decades
the rate of species loss
could be 10,000 times
the background rate
appears to be on the mark.
Commenting on
Dr. Wilson’s predictions,
he stated,
“All the evidence is
he's right.
Some people claim it already
is that ... things can only
have deteriorated because
of the drivers of the losses,
such as habitat loss
and climate change,
[are] all getting worse."
The current cycle
of extinctions
has been referred to as
“the anthropogenic period,”
because, unlike the past
five mass extinctions,
one of which caused
the last of the dinosaurs
to disappear,
the ongoing one is driven
by human actions.
Pollution from industrial
activity, hunting, fishing,
animal agriculture, and
human population growth
are also ongoing threats
to biodiversity.
The single greatest driver
of extinctions
is animal agriculture.
The United Nations report
“Livestock’s Long Shadow”
concludes nearly a third
of the Earth’s surface
has been taken up
for activities related to
livestock raising.
The majority
of human-caused global
greenhouse gas emissions
are from this industry,
making it the chief reason
for accelerating
climate change.
Enormous amounts
of animal waste
that severely pollutes
land and waterways
are generated by
factory farm operations.
Environmentally-harmful
chemical fertilizers
and pesticides are used
on a tremendous scale
to grow animal feed.
Production of livestock,
in particular
meat products, is an
enormously intense one
in terms of consumption
of resources.
If we seriously want to
talk about the questions
of biodiversity,
of water quality,
nitrates pollution,
of the CO2 emissions…
we have to ask for
the help of farmers also.
I take the view that we
should be less inefficient;
I take the view that
we should have less meat
in our diets
and more vegetables,
just as Dr. Pachauri,
and I think it makes sense
for nature, it makes sense
economically, and it
actually is a solution to
the world food problem.
Today something like
25% of all land
is in some form
or the other used for
cattle and for meat food.
So if you could somehow
think of more efficient
ways of making use
of the same land, and
using it to produce food
for human beings directly
rather than
food for animals,
which are then eaten
by human beings, I think
that will be a huge favor
that we do ourselves.
So we should reduce
our meat consumption
in my opinion, as well.
Humanity is consuming
the Earth’s resources
faster than
they can be renewed.
The Global Footprint
Network, a US-based
environmental research
organization, calculated
that August 21, 2010
marks what it terms
“Earth Overshoot Day,”
meaning that
up to that point in 2010
humanity had consumed
12 months’ worth
of natural resources
in under nine months,
causing us to lose
ecosystem services,
or the resources
and services that
the environment produces
that benefit humans
such as the air
being purified by trees
or bees pollinating crops
and natural vegetation.
In economic terms, this is
akin to using up capital
rather than living on
interest income.
Biodiversity brings us
clean water, climate
control, disease control,
pollination services.
These are fundamental
building blocks to our life,
our human well-being,
and they’re declining.
If you look at this chart
here that WWF
(World Wildlife Fund)
produces every year,
something called “The
Living Planet Report,”
there are two really
key charts in there.
The first one shows our
global ecological footprint.
So this is a measure if
you divided up everything
that we consume and
allocated a parcel of land
to it, how much land
or other resources
like atmosphere
would be required?
And that little dotted line
that you see
running along the middle,
there that represents
one Earth.
So in 1961 we were
consuming about …..
…60% of
all of the resources
that the Earth can renew
within a single year.
Now, come the middle
of September (2010)
we’ve already used up
all of the resources that
the planet can provide to us
in one year.
So, we’re 50%
above sustainability
at a planetary level.
And at the same time,
and of course
closely linked to that,
we are in the midst
of one of the
great mass extinctions
this planet has ever known.
We have lost
30% of the biodiversity
on this planet
in just 40 years.
And in the tropics
we’re talking about 60%
declines in biodiversity.
That just cannot continue.
If it does we won’t
have anything to eat and
we won’t have anything
to fuel our economy.
To better understand
the challenges we face,
over the past four years
a diverse group of
scientists brought together
by the Convention
on Biological Diversity,
the United Nations
Environment Programme
and Diversitas,
a collaboration
of five prominent
non-governmental
organizations including
the Committee on Problems
of the Environment,
have been evaluating
biodiversity’s future
in the 21st century.
In a Convention on
Biological Diversity report,
scientists identify 10
major terrestrial systems
of vital importance
to biodiversity that are
at risk of being pushed
beyond the tipping point.
These at-risk systems
include the Arctic tundra,
the Arctic itself,
the Mediterranean forest,
the Sahel-Sahara region
in Africa,
marine fish populations,
lakes, coastal areas,
coral reefs,
the Miombo woodlands,
marine plankton and
the Amazon rainforest.
For example,
in the lakes system,
the build-up of nutrients,
predominantly from
agricultural runoff,
as well as animal waste
and detergents, cause
the rapid growth of algae
or “algal blooms.”
As the algae die off,
the oxygen in the water
is depleted,
making it difficult for
aquatic plants and fish
to survive, and rendering
the water unfit to drink.
In the Amazon system,
the widespread
destruction of forest to
create cattle pastures and
fields to grow soybeans
for livestock, is reducing
regional rainfalls
and injuring biodiversity,
which has global effects.
The low rainfall amounts
can cause wildfires
and lead to an eventual
die-off of large portions
of the rainforest along with
the animal inhabitants.
In turn harsh droughts
would occur across
much of South America.
On a worldwide scale,
the reduction of
the Amazon rainforest
would further
heat up our planet by
lessening a major source
of carbon dioxide
sequestration and further
threaten biodiversity.
To reverse
these troubling trends
it is imperative
that stakeholders
truly understand
the value of nature and
change policies accordingly.
Forests purify and store
water, prevent floods,
turn carbon dioxide
into clean air,
and provide a home
for countless species.
Mountain glaciers are
like giant water towers
in the sky, capturing water
in the form of snow
and then releasing it
during the spring
and summer months,
allowing people to
irrigate crops and serving
as a significant water source
for flora and fauna.
How do we
quantify the worth of
these precious resources?
Until recently, the value of
these ecosystem services
was not readily calculable.
Recognizing this fact,
the United Nations
Environment Programme
formed The Economics
of Ecosystems and
Biodiversity (TEEB)
initiative, led by
Dr. Pavan Sukhdev.
TEEB’s task is
to calculate a value
for ecosystems services
and then create a series of
guidelines for businesses
and governments so that
they can appreciate the costs
and develop strategies for
changing environmentally-
destructive practices and
consumption patterns.
I think
the most important thing
is to start accounting
for the value of nature
and to do that not only
at that national level,
at the local level, but also
at the business level.
So when we start
measuring these values,
we really start
responding to them.
So, as you know, when
we, TEEB, worked out
that the size of the losses
was large, people woke up.
A 2008 study
conducted for the
European Commission’s
Environment Directorate
General found
that loss of land-based
ecosystem services
from 2000 to 2010,
amounted to
€50 billion a year
and if biodiversity
is not protected,
the study projects that
between 2000 and 2050
ecosystem service losses
will be around €14 trillion.
How governments can use
these types of valuations
to make wise decisions
is illustrated
in the following example:
New York City, USA
was considering spending
US$6 to US$8 billion
to build
a water filtration plant,
which would have cost
US$300 to US$500 million
per year to operate.
Instead, the city invested
US$1.5 billion to maintain
the Catskill Mountain
watershed which
had been providing
much of New York’s
drinking water supply
for years, thus
saving billions of dollars
and protecting nature
vulnerable to
encroaching development.
During an interview
with our Supreme Master
Television correspondent,
Dr. Sukhdev
urged our viewers
to become aware of
the value of biodiversity.
Yes, I would like
to ask your viewers this:
You have got
private wealth and you
have got private assets,
but you also have
public wealth -
that public wealth is
largely nature - every time
your private assets suffer,
you call up your
private wealth manager;
I’m telling you
that your public wealth,
which is nature,
is suffering all the time.
How many times
have you called up your
public wealth manager,
your government, your
member of parliament,
your minister?
Please call them up,
tell them, “Manage my
public wealth better.”
Conscientious viewers,
please join us again
next Wednesday
on Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home
when we’ll explore the links
between climate change
and biodiversity loss and
discover why changing
to an animal-free diet
is the most effective tool
for protecting
our beautiful planet
and her inhabitants.
Thank you
for your company
on today’s program.
Coming up next is
Enlightening Entertainment,
after Noteworthy News.
May we all do our best
to safeguard
our one and only planet.
“It's about your life,
it's about life on this planet
and it is about what
we are doing to this planet
with our eyes open today
and increasingly
being culpable of
being accused by
the next generation of
having acted irresponsibly
and increasingly
questionable from
an ethical point of view.”
Virtuous viewers,
welcome to Planet Earth:
Our Loving Home.
Scientific experts fear
that our world is
in the midst of
its sixth mass extinction
and say its cause
is human actions.
Today in the conclusion
of a two-part series
we’ll further
explore the challenges
facing biodiversity worldwide
including
the extreme dangers
posed by global warming,
the necessity
of species preservation
to ensure the survival
of humankind as well as
the most effective tools for
biodiversity conservation
and mitigating
climate change.
As discussed last week,
biodiversity loss
is occurring with
such speed and severity
that it’s threatening
all life on Earth.
Human activity itself
is a combination
of population, levels of
consumption and
the particular technologies
that people choose.
We may have lost tens
of thousands of species
out of the estimated
12 million that exist.
But I think
the important thing is that
the rate of losing them
is going up very rapidly.
In the past,
in the geological record,
we were losing about
a dozen or so per year.
Over the last 500 years,
since people began
writing about well-known
groups of organisms,
we’ve been losing
hundreds a year.
And now we seem to be
losing thousands per year,
going up towards
tens of thousands,
which makes this by far
the strongest level of
extinction since the end
of the Cretaceous Period
65-million years ago
when the dinosaurs
disappeared and mammals
came into the ascendancy
and the whole quality
of life on Earth
changed radically.
We are in this
extraordinary moment
in history where through
our collective capacity
to affect the life support
systems on this planet,
that terms such as
“thresholds,”
“tipping points,” and
“collapse” are becoming
part of our vocabulary.
The Global Biodiversity
Outlook that was published
earlier this year (2010)
by the CBD (Convention
on Biological Diversity)
and the significant support
also from the UNEP
World Conservation
Monitoring Centre was
a very sobering report.
Not a single country
could document its ability
to have reversed the rate
of loss of biodiversity.
Many species are
disappearing every day,
and if we just leave it,
biodiversity will be
completely destroyed
without fail.
Species decline
in our beautiful oceans
is accelerating due to
toxic pollution generated
by industrial activities,
hugely destructive
intensive animal
agriculture operations,
global warming
and massive overfishing
worldwide.
The pollution problem
is strongly related to
agricultural practices
which produce
much of the nitrogen,
phosphorous, pesticides,
and herbicides that
enter the coastal waters
and cause a lot of damage
to marine ecosystems
in general.
There were more than
400 known dead zones,
or spaces in the ocean
devoid of oxygen and
hence most marine life,
in coastal waters
worldwide in 2008,
with only 49 zones
in the 1960s.
Those dead zones
are frequently caused by
too many fertilizers that
enter the coastal areas
around our countries
and one of
the most important ways
of dealing with that
is changing the way
that we do agriculture
and that means doing
a much more reasonable
practice of agriculture,
especially in the way
that we use fertilizers,
reducing greatly
the amount of fertilizers.
And that can be done
actually without affecting
very much the yields.
And it also has to do
with the amount of meat
that we produce.
Meat production
actually increases
the amount of plants
that we have to grow
and it also creates
a lot of animal wastes
that are part of the problem
of that nutrient pollution.
So those are
two important things
we can do
that are largely to do
with improving
agricultural practices.
With so many dead zones
in the ocean,
again it’s really the way
we farm that’s contributing
to these dead zones.
The soils run off, the soils
contain high levels of
fertilizers, pesticides,
and herbicides
that kill the ocean.
So as long as
we keep dumping on
so much fertilizer,
as long as
we crowd cows together
and make so much waste
and crowd pigs together
and make so much waste,
we’re going
to have dead zones.
Marine biodiversity
has especially been
seriously destroyed. Why?
It’s due to destructive
fishing or overfishing,
such as trawling.
Recent research
led by Dr. Boris Worm
of Dalhousie University
in Halifax, Nova Scotia,
Canada, indicates that
up to half of ocean species
have disappeared
due to overfishing.
A bit more than 80 percent
of the commercially
exploited stocks
are over-exploited,
they are collapsing.
Some stocks like,
for instance, the lobster
has been collapsing
for a long time already.
The number of fleets
increased three to five times
in the last few decades
in some fishing areas
and the fish stocks
can’t handle such a level
of exploitation anymore.
Scientists project that if
the current trend continues,
a complete collapse
of global fisheries
will occur around 2050,
creating “ghost waters”
devoid of fish.
Fish farms,
a type of aquaculture,
which some say are
a so-called
“sustainable alternative”
to fishing, environmentally
devastate the waters
in which they operate and
speed up the depletion
of ocean life.
It takes
one to two kilograms
of sea-caught fish
to produce one kilogram
of farm-raised fish,
essentially making
the captive fish
artificial ocean predators.
Given the state
of our world,
species preservation,
whether on land or at sea,
appears to be
a highly daunting task,
but fortunately there is
a ready solution at hand.
The global adoption
of the plant-based diet
can protect ecosystems,
plants and animals
and halt climate change,
because both biodiversity
loss and global warming
have a common cause:
the consumption
of animal products and
the livestock industry.
Eating a lot of meat
is not a very efficient way
to nourish the populations.
In fact there is a really
high environmental cost
in eating meat,
which is really high up
in the (food) chain
and it would be
much more efficient to eat
lower in the food chain –
that is for more people
to be vegetarians.
The 2006 Food and
Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations’
landmark report
“Livestock’s
Long Shadow,” estimated
18% of all human-caused
global greenhouse gas
emissions are related to
livestock raising and
more recent estimates
by other researchers,
when accounting for
the entire cycle of
producing and consuming
animal products,
put the percentage
at 51% or higher.
How are our
dietary choices
driving biodiversity loss?
In “Livestock’s
Long Shadow”
the authors explain
the effect of meat-eating
as follows:
“Livestock now account
for about 20% of the total
terrestrial animal biomass,
and the 30% of
the Earth’s land surface
that they now pre-empt was
once habitat for wildlife.
Indeed,
the livestock sector may
well be the leading player
in the reduction
of biodiversity, since
it is the major driver of
deforestation, as well as
one of the leading drivers
of land degradation,
pollution, climate change,
overfishing, sedimentation
of coastal areas and
facilitation of invasions
by alien species.”
The livestock industry
is the leading cause
of an alarming decline
in wild species.
In a new October 2010
study, Dutch researchers
found that
protecting natural areas
is not sufficient to stop
these fast extinctions
of flora and fauna;
rather, one of the most
effective policies
is changing
to a no-animal diet,
meaning plant-based food.
In that study, entitled
“Rethinking Global
Biodiversity Strategies,”
the Netherlands
Environmental Assessment
Agency evaluated
the efficacy of modifying
global-level production
and consumption patterns
to stem species decline.
The level of biodiversity
on land was estimated
using a benchmark called
“Mean Species Abundance”
(MSA) which is
“the composition
of species in
numbers and abundance
compared with
the original state
and provides
a common framework to
assess the major causes
of biodiversity loss.”
As an example,
converting forest land
to crop fields
would mean a huge drop
in an area’s MSA level
as all species dependent
on trees and forest cover
to survive would be gone.
Comparing eight
different policy options
to reduce
an assumed baseline 10%
global biodiversity loss
between 2000 and 2050,
including
protecting natural areas,
managing forests better,
and humanity
adopting a meatless diet,
the animal-free diet was
found to best safeguard
species survival out of
all the possible choices.
So if we stop
all animal products –
fish, eggs, meat and dairy -
we will save the oceans,
save the climate
and we could halt
also biodiversity loss.
I’m Jo Leinen,
the Chairman of the
Environment Committee in
the European Parliament
in Brussels.
The protection
of biodiversity means
that we have to
reduce emissions
and the consumption
of resources;
and that means we have
to change our lifestyle –
our lifestyle is much
too heavy for nature
and the ecosystems,
and especially
our eating habits
have to be changed.
I think we eat too much
meat and we eat
too much fish, and
we have to reduce both
and be more vegetarian.
The 2010 United Nations
Environment Programme
(UNEP) study “Assessing
Environmental Impacts
of Consumption
and Production: Priority
Products and Materials,”
found that
animal-based food is
the common denominator
with respect to most of
our planet’s serious
environmental issues.
The paper states,
“Agriculture
and food consumption
are identified as one of
the most important
drivers of
environmental pressures,
especially habitat change,
climate change, water use
and toxic emissions.”
Regarding the report,
UNEP’s executive director
Achim Steiner said:
“The Panel have reviewed
all the available science
and conclude that
two broad areas
are currently having
a disproportionately
high impact on people
and the planet's
life support systems —
these are energy
in the form of fossil fuels
and agriculture, especially
the raising of livestock
for meat and
dairy products."
The ecological damage
caused by animal products
is so severe that the
UNEP study concluded:
“A substantial reduction
of impacts
would only be possible
with a substantial
worldwide diet change,
away from
animal products.”
Given
the unprecedented threat
all life on Earth faces,
as global citizens
it behooves us
to take immediate action
and spread the good news
about how taking
the simple step of
embracing the vegan diet
can simultaneously halt
species decline
and climate change.
Let us all quickly convert
to an animal-free way
of life to usher
in a bright new era
for our planet.
Precious viewers,
thank you for joining us
today on our program.
Coming up next is
Enlightening Entertainment,
after Noteworthy News.
May the Providence
always grace our lives.