Biodiversity and human activity
From nature-based solutions to climate, health issues, sustainable livelihoods, and food and water security, biodiversity provides a foundation upon which we can build back a better world as we move to a post-pandemic reality. It is also a much–needed reminder that humans are indeed part of nature and not separate from it. The rate at which biodiversity has been decreasing in the last few decades is deeply disturbing. Earth is currently in the midst of the sixth major extinction event in its 4.5-billion-year history. And this time around, the cause of a massive reduction in the planet’s biodiversity is not a meteor or an ice age but human activity. From the world’s oceans to its shrinking savannahs, wetlands, and forests, the rich biodiversity that has bloomed in the last few millennia is under existential threat, with many of the world’s species facing or threatened by functional extinction. We now live on a planet that is numerically dominated by just a small number of life-forms – human beings and the animals we eat and use for food.What you can do to fight biodiversity loss
All of this can be pretty overwhelming. But given that it is human activity that is destroying the planet’s biodiversity, changing our behaviour can also help to reverse the trend and provide solutions. A quick internet search reveals lists of the many things we can do individually and collectively. Key actions include:- government legislation and research
- establishing massive nature-preservation areas
- reducing invasive species
- habitat restoration
- seed banks
- fighting climate change
