The terrible twins of climate change and loss biodiversity threaten human existence. Their wicked problems are accompanied equally by two important drivers of calamity populations and economic growth. These four horsemen gallop unison and must all be considered.
Climate change
After decades of misinformation and then denials about the reality of climate change, governments are finally embracing the facts. Climate scientists warn of climate changeThey also gained valuable experience from the rapidly changing extreme weather events. But, their actions are still insufficient to ensure that civilization can exist in the future. We must stop greenhouse emissions In the next two decades.
Positives include the fact that science is solid, we can measure our success or failure by measuring atmospheric carbon dioxide, methane, as well as the possibility of spending hundreds of millions of dollars to get these gases out if all else fails.
Many technological solutions to climate change mitigation are problematic, and some can actually cause environmental harm.
Biodiversity, its ecological services
Both biodiversity and climate change have an impact on each other. While climate change is a significant factor in biodiversity loss, it is not the only cause. The fundamental cause of the biodiversity crisis is the destruction of the natural environment by a large population for their economic gain.
The 2019 Warning of a Climate EmergencyThe document, which was signed by more than 11,000 scientists, identified continual increases in the human population and the global gross domestic product as major causes of ecological decline.
We don’t know enough about the science behind how biodiversity loss and its ecological services will lead to civilization’s end. It is complex and diffuse. We don’t have one way to measure success or demise. We do not experience the consequences of extreme events such as flood, storm, fire or heat domes.
Healthy ecosystems are vital for all life on Earth. They are interdependent networks of millions of living organisms that create a physical environment. They are our life support system that provide clean air and freshwater, fertile soil for food, as well as many other resources, medicines, and other resources. We are part and parcel of this web of life, but now we have taken it all.
As acknowledged by Scientists from Australia and the U.S.The threat to all life forms, including humanity, is so severe that even the most well-informed scientists have difficulty understanding it. The ineffectiveness of environmental protection laws and laws is a result of the lack of awareness by both industry and public government.
Some of the outcomes will be related to agriculture failure with hunger, starvation, and conflict. The Dust Bowl disaster of the 1930s saw a prolonged drought that resulted in the loss of 1.2 million tons of soil across the Great Plains. There were also thousands of refugees, as John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes Of Wrath depicts.
Stock grazing was replaced with wheat production and soil stability was lost by native grasses. The deniers will claim such episodes have always happened and ignore the increase in similar disasters that are occurring all over the globe, just like climate change.
A few encouraging developments indicate that governments are becoming more aware of the problem.
Long overdue collaborationThe Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, (IPBES), and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will now meet.
Natural capital accounting is underway for 90 countries under UN SEEA, but neither the U.S. nor Australia have made significant progress, as The Hill explains.
A Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), an international taskforce, was launched last month. It will create a framework for financial institutions and corporations to report on. Nature-related transition and physical risks
Population growth
Philip Cafaro, professor of philosophy at the School of Global Environmental Sustainability, Colorado State University NotesNumerous studies show that limiting the growth of the population is one of most cost-effective ways to adapt to climate change. Despite this, the topic of population growth is still taboo. One reason is human rights concerns. This needs to be balanced with the right for humanity’s continued existence, and many other species upon which we depend.
Cafaro also mentions that The IPCCs 2014 reportIt states that global economic and population growth are the main drivers of CO2 emissions from fossil fuel burning. One of the Working Groups reiterated this in the 2021 IPCC Report, but it was not included in the 3,676-page final Report.
The Hill reported that American couples have fewer children than ever before, but that there is no specific population policy and that immigration causes sporadic increases in population. Australia encourages population growth. Peter Costello, the Australian Treasurer, promoted the baby bonus scheme in 2002 with the encouragement to have one for mom, one for dad, and one for Australia. Despite the rapidly changing environment and increasing climate change impacts, this philosophy is still in place in our vast country.
However, Australia is advancing rational views based upon science, as shown by the discussion paper Climate Change and Population.
The consumer economy
The fourth most dangerous horseman is the obsession for economic growth, which fails to recognize that our planet and its biological resources have finite resources. Their ideology of progress, growth and prosperity was shared by the leaders and representatives from nations at the UN climate summit COP26. They were unable to envision economic reform that would curb consumerism. Therefore, the IPCC report for 2021 did not address this issue.
Humanity urgently requires an integrated Intergovernmental Panel report – the IPCBPE.
Unfortunately, the fifth horseman of apocalypse, the Russian steppes’ fifth horseman, has arrived. However, war must not distract us from our urgent mission of stopping the advance of Four.
David Shearman (AM. Ph.D. FRACP. FRCPE) is a professor of Medicine at the University of Adelaide in South Australia. He was also co-founder ofDoctors for the Environment Australia. He is co-author of The Climate Change Challenge & the Failure of Democracy (2007), a book commissioned by Pell Centre for Public Policy and International Relations.