Sidebar: Native Landscaping for Biodiversity
Mass Extinction: A Disaster for Humanity
Worldwide, 25% of all species are threatened, according to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) in its Global Assessment of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. And the rate of extinction is alarming—“at least tens to hundreds of times higher than it has averaged over the past 10 million years.”
Land-use changes (for example, from forests or grasslands to agriculture) are among the biggest drivers of species loss and extinction, alongside climate change. And invasive species are also insidious. “Nearly one-fifth of the Earth’s surface is at risk of plant and animal invasions,” says the IPBES report. “The rate of introduction of new invasive alien species seems higher than ever before and shows no signs of slowing.”
Why should humans care? Because we depend heavily on biodiversity to sustain us. Some of the ecosystem services we enjoy: We need healthy, biodiverse soil and native pollinators to produce our food. We need forests to absorb excess carbon. We need our water to be filtered by healthy soils. “Nature underpins all dimensions of human health and contributes to non-material aspects of quality of life,” the report says.
Another IPBES report, co-sponsored by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), details how global warming and mass extinction are related. “Climate and biodiversity are intertwined through mechanistic links and feedbacks,” notes the Biodiversity and Climate Change Workshop Report. “Climate change exacerbates risks to biodiversity and natural and managed habitats,” the authors write. But there’s hope: “at the same time, natural and managed ecosystems and their biodiversity play a key role in the fluxes of greenhouse gases, as well as in supporting climate adaptation.”
