The trashing of treasure: global biodiversity needs intensive care

Continuing population declines and extinctions across the earth’s biodiversity spectrum further undermine global ecological functioning and the security of human society. A comprehensive summary of the soon to be released Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Nexus Assessment report was published in December 2024. It stated that the current environmental, social and economic crises, reflected in mounting biodiversity loss, global climate change, growing water and food insecurity and risks to human health, are inseparable. It also warned that biodiversity levels have fallen between 2% and 6% per decade for the last 30 to 50 years. The level of harm being inflicted on nature is chilling for human society given that the report also stated that ~$58 trillion of global economic activity in 2023 was in sectors moderately to highly nature dependent. Setting aside the strong moral arguments for biodiversity conservation, this situation points to a mounting economic disaster. On a positive note, the report summary did list a suite of proposals for slowing this alarming level of biodiversity loss. However, separate from the IPBES Nexus report, factors that need to be addressed include the expectation of continuous economic growth, extreme concentration of global wealth and power; economic materialism; corporate tax avoidance; public and private sector corruption; the non-incorporation of environmental costs in generating Gross Domestic Product; and the flooding of the internet with misinformation, including climate change denial.