2016: We Are Now in Global Crisis

Sep 22

Sep 22 2016: We Are Now in Global Crisis

Hi - Chris Searles here, editor of AllCreation.org.

2016 is the year we began crossing critical thresholds in both global warming and biodiversity loss. As the founder of BioIntegrity I can tell you the most effective solution to both of these crises is large and small scale biodiversity restoration. Here's what would stop today's global environmental crises: 1. Protecting and restoring Earth's most biodiverse ecosystems, #2. Solving the poverty and food challenges of the next 35 to 50 years with rapid permaculture, #3. Utilizing permaculture to build biodiversity resilience buffers in and around the places people live.

Biodiversity-based solutions are the most affordable, cost-effective, and multi-faceted environmental solutions available to us. More about that here. Additionally, we must continue the inspiring global growth of clean tech and accelerate the adoption of "closed loop" economics. 'All that for another blog. Here's the bad news. I and my collaborators at AllCreation.org thought it appropriate to share some selected headlines about recent deteriorations to our life support system.

February 2016 to September 2016
Click month to see reference. This quote, from July 2016, frames the situation:

"More than 70% of the global population lives in areas where the level of biodiversity loss has been so substantial that the ability of ecosystems to support humanity is now in question."

More than 50% of Earth's biodiversity was destroyed between 1970 & 2010
Feb - "February smashed a century of global temperature records by a stunning margin"
March - "Scientists warn of a perilous climate shift in decades, not centuries"
March - We are gambling with "the loss of all coastal cities" within decades
April - 93% of the Great Barrier Reef is bleached
April - Unmitigated greenhouse gasses will cost "from $2.5T to $24T next 80 years"
May - The Atlantic Ocean conveyor belt is more fragile "than previously believed possible"
May - 7 global climate records were broken in first 5 months of 2016
May - Earth's health is declining faster than thought
May - Florida's coral reefs disintegrating
June - Scientists, "Climate change is an emergency today"
June - At least 234 Americans killed by flooding, last 18 months
June - June 2016 is the 14th consecutive month to break global temperature records
July - July 2016 "absolutely the hottest month ever recorded"
July - Climate scientists expected 'nothing like' this year's record-breaking global temperatures
July - Biggest global coral bleaching in history expected to continue till 2017
July - Humanity's consumption of natural resources has tripled last 40 years
July - "Ecological recession": Researchers say biodiversity loss has hit critical threshold across the globe
Aug - 97% of most species-rich places on Earth have been seriously altered by humans
Aug - August beats July as hottest month ever recorded
Aug - 2016 already a record year of expensive, deadly weather across USA
Aug - Unmitigated climate change will cost Millenials 36% of their lifetime income
Sept - Coastal flooding of the US has begun, due to global warming
Sept - "The oceans can't protect us anymore"

Pretty much everything we require to live on planet Earth is generated by or governed by living things: aka. biodiversity. The convergence of climate conditions, ecosystem factors, and biodiversity productivity produce all of our life support services, every day. Humanity's recent phenomenal expansion is destroying that, sawing off the limb of the tree we sit on, driving global climate change, biodiversity loss and "state shift".

Biodiversity loss is just as devastating to our life support systems as climate change, and the two are mutually entropic. Small changes can drastically reduce biological productivity. With today's radical biodiversity losses and extinctions, the risk is that we will soon 'irreversibly disrupt the integrity of our ecosystems and the functions required to continuously create new life.'

Less than 15% of natural vegetation currently remains in the world's biodiversity hotspots. Paragraph one above outlines the most powerful solutions to all of this. It is time to embrace ecological recovery. We can reverse biodiversity loss. We can win on these challenges. All that is required is that we create more than we destroy and move to build a better world for our children.

Check out my YouTube series or LinkedIN series on the World's Biggest Environmental Solution. Contact me at BioIntegrity to ask questions and check out the world's most cost effective and affordable, global environmental solutions.