Humanity is on the verge of ‘shattering Earth’s natural limits’, say experts in biodiversity warning
OK, perhaps not amusing. But:
Human activity has pushed the world into the danger zone in seven out of eight newly demarcated indicators of planetary safety and justice, according to a groundbreaking analysis of the Earth’s wellbeing.
The amusement is. None of these 8 markers are actually of minerals, metals, elements, running out. When 20 and 30 years ago that was all assumed to be that rigid limit upon human expansion.
And that is amusing, isn’t it? What definitely was going to kill us all in our beds now isn’t even mentioned at all. Which gives us how much of a guide to what’s now definitely going to kill us all in our beds?
WTF’s an expert in biodiversity when they’re at home? A self appointed expert most likely.
What’s amusing about the article is it’s citing the extinction of the passenger pigeon as a reduction in biodiversity. The density of the flocks of passenger pigeons in North America was one species crowding out all the others. So their extinction raised biodiversity.
Her comments were echoed in a report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (Ipbes), which found a market-based focus on economic growth meant the wider benefits of nature – including spiritual, cultural and emotional value – had been ignored.
sigh
on Saturday, Radio3 broadcast Haendel’s Giulio Cesare from Rome. It really was good. Alessandrini was conducting, bit of. a hero of mine, old Rinaldo. If you have three hours of quiet time get it on BBC Sounds.
Imagine if all the money that went into grift like this was invested in new technology like more efficient food production, better nuclear reactors, more efficient transport, more efficient methods of manufacturing, more efficient methods of ………
“Human activity has pushed the world into the danger zone in seven out of eight newly demarcated indicators of planetary safety and justice”
What sort of justice was there before human activity?
“What sort of justice was there before human activity?”
There were all those liberal and progressive dinosaurs, of course! A veritable maelstrom of social justice without doubt.
But then again they were literal dinosaurs so maybe not quite so progressive after all……..a Faragaraptor perhaps, or a Trumpadon?
As the great George Carlin opined ” Over 90% – over, way over – 90% of all the species that have ever lived on this planet, ever lived, are gone! They’re extinct! We didn’t kill them all; “.
What a total waste of time and effort these cop16 conferences are.
newly demarcated indicators of planetary safety and justice
ie ‘some bullshit we made up five minutes ago’
Grauniad announces that it’s not fair that the wealthier people who drive fuel-efficient cars with silencers attached to their exhaust pipes aren’t choking on the pollution from rust-buckets with no silencers.
Hydroelectric dams must not reduce water flow in a “catchment area” (river basin) by more than 20% – but the best place for a hydroelectric dam is where a reduction of 30-40% will not diminish water quality, so we’ve got to reduce the output of nice “green” hydropower.
“only 45% to 50% of the planet has an intact ecosystem” – oceans cover 71% of the earth’s surface; Antartica is 40% larger than Europe and nearly twice the size of Australia. Grauniad innumeracy lives!
It’s a fantastic wheeze, all this shit, because not only is it a nice little earner, the plain, ugly beta people involved can all feel morally superior, and that they’re scientific superheroes saving the world.
Whats not to like?
“We are already locked in for significant damage, and we’re heading in a direction that will see more,” says Tom Oliver, professor of applied ecology at the University of Reading. “I really worry that negative changes could be very rapid.”
Professor of applied ecology at the University of Reading, lol.
So not a real doctor then.
You can smell the Science™ running down their legs:
Environmental breakdown is driving inequality, conflict and injustice.
And waythithm, homophobia and trannyphobia oh my!
I’m surprised Murphy hasn’t noticed an opportunity here given his recent proposals for Sustainable Cost Accounting seems to have disappeared without any trace.
Sustainable Biodiversity Accounting (TM)
You’d need someone to draft an Accounting Standard, provide seminars and write articles and materials, brief Ministers, be on call as a paid consultant, etc etc.
Kerching!
Environmental breakdown is driving inequality, conflict and injustice.
So, obviously, there was no inequality, conflict and injustice before the Industrial Revolution and its consequent “environmental breakdown”. Or maybe there was, but less of it.
What an inconvenience that UN and WHO data (I know) shows less violence and poverty in the world now than there has ever been. Hans Rosling’s Factfulness – despite him having been a good Progressive – is very good on this.
Jim: « … a Faragaraptor perhaps, or a Trumpadon? »
Very good 🙂
Maybe a Lepenosaurus and a Weidelodocus too.
“Oliver says: “I think we will, certainly, in the next 15 to 20 years, see continued food crises, and the real risk of multiple breadbasket failures … that’s in addition to a lot of the other risks that might impact us through fresh-water pollution, ocean acidification, wildfire and algal blooms, and so on.””
We won’t, will we? I’m not even saying global warming is a fraud, or that at some point in humanity’s future it all turns to shit, but 15-20 years? No way,. Everyone still thinks that the Cote de Nuits, the Pfalz, the Thermenregion are the optimum places to grow Pinot Noir and that hasn’t changed in 100 years. And that’s about the wine that elite, picky fuckers want. The absolute best. Where 50 miles north or south is noticeable. That’s the real test of all this global warming, isn’t it? Where do the wine producers, or the nectarine growers really want to be, where you make the most money. And that hasn’t changed, has it?
I must get my funding application in, or maybe I can set up some crowd funding to study Sudden Heuristic Integration of Terminal Events.
Anybody want to contribute?
“Oliver says: “I think we will, certainly, in the next 15 to 20 years, see continued food crises, and the real risk of multiple breadbasket failures”
What food crises are these then? The price of food (at the farm gate) is the same today it was 15 years ago, in actual terms not real ones. The only spike we’ve had in global food prices are a) due to political intervention (the US suddenly deciding it was going to use massive areas for bioethanol instead of food) and b) wars. Nothing to do with climate change at all.
As a farmer I’m dying to get this climate change and food production collapse, we might be able to actually make some money for once. As it stands we are far too productive, farmers produce far too much food too cheaply and the real terms price constantly falls. The only reason prices go up in the shops is due to the food manufacturing and retailing cartel who make sure they make fat profits every year.
The only reason prices go up in the shops is due to the food manufacturing and retailing cartel who make sure they make fat profits every year.
Even the worst price gouging supermarkets have minimal profit margins on food. There is literally no way that the retailers can be affecting the price in any substantial manner. If they were, then small greengrocers and the like would be able to easily undercut them. (I know there’s some predatory pricing and capture of suppliers, but in the end if bigger profits were available the farmers would not sign those contracts.)
And the food manufacturers are even less able to gouge, because they are in super competitive markets. NZ doesn’t have import duty or restrictions on most food. We’d be flooded in an instant if the manufacturers were ripping us off.
The reason farmers struggle is because the retailers and manufacturers of food are in a cut-throat market, and that transfers to the prices they can pay. It’s literally exactly the reverse of your claim.
“The reason farmers struggle is because the retailers and manufacturers of food are in a cut-throat market, and that transfers to the prices they can pay. It’s literally exactly the reverse of your claim.”
Then why is the price of a loaf of bread 3 times what it was 25 years ago, while the price of wheat is about 1.5 times higher? If the wheat price had followed the bread price it would be over £350/tonne now, when its half that. Someone is taking all that extra profit, and its not the farmer.
Jim, I appreciate you know far more about this than I, but how much have the other costs of flogging bread gone up compared to 25 years ago?
Growing the stuff is one thing, but perhaps it’s the costs of processing the wheat, baking it, shipping it to the supermarket, the store staff costs, energy etc. etc. that has caused the price disparity. Perhaps it’s Government policy that is to blame…..
I believe Tesco had something like 6% margin before Aldi and Lidl came along 20+ years ago, now it’s around 3%.
WTF’s an expert in biodiversity when they’re at home?
I read the original as “biodiversity-warning experts”.