According to WWF Living Planet Index 2020 report, from 1970s to 2016, almost 70% of the wild animals population are lost because of habitat lost due to Deforestation, pollution and excessive human activities such as overfishing.
In the past 50 years, we have lost 68% of wild life such as elephants, lions, deers, giraffe, wolves, whales, sharks, dolphins, tuna etc. Only 32% of wild life is left.
More info of WWF Living Planet Index 2020 Report:
https://livingplanet.panda.org/en-us/
WWF Biodiversity Loss: untangled: (5 mins):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM0EZP5ijbA
Biodiversity Loss video clip: (6 min):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jWqdj7hU_Y
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According to United Nations 2019 Biodiversity and Ecosystems Service Report (IPBES Report), more than 1 million animal and plant species are now threaten with Extinction.
[25% of all species threaten with Extinction: including >40% of amphibian species, >33% of corals, sharks and marine mammals (whales/ dolphins etc) ]
The Extinction rate is 10s to 100s time more than the natural extinction rate. (The UN report is conservative, WWF website shows that Extinction rate is 1000 times to 10,000 times more than the normal Extinction rate.)
We are facing the 6th Mass Extinction event driven by Humans. (The last mass Extinction event happened 66 million years ago when the Dinosaurs were wiped out.)
The 5 Drivers of Biodiversity Loss are, in descending order:
- Changes in Land and Sea use. [e.g. Deforestation, Offshore aquaculture/ bottom trawling]
- Direct Exploitation of organisms. [e.g. Overfishing, hunting]
- Climate change.
- Pollution.
- Invasive alien species.
The UN Biodiversity report also shows that 47% of our Natural Ecosystems are lost. (including 32% of Forest are lost, 50% of Coral Reefs are lost, 87% of wetlands are lost)
The report shows that 75% of land environment and 66% of marine environments are ‘severely altered’ by human actions.
On Land, Deforestation is driven by Agriculture. (mainly animal agriculture)
In the Tropics, from 1980 to 2000, there are 100 million hectares of agricultural expansion. Cattle ranching in Latin America (e.g. Brazil Amazon) accounts for 42 million ha of agriculture expansion, plantations in Southeast Asia accounts for 7.5 million ha (mostly due to oil palm).
[A UN 2022 Land Report shows that Food systems accounts for 80% of global Deforestation and is the single largest cause of Biodiversity loss on land.
The world currently rise and kill 70 billion land animals (chickens/pigs/cows/lambs etc) a year. The animals eat more than half of the world’s crops. Animal industry is a driver of Deforestation world-wide to change forest to pastures/ fields to grow feed-crops (soy/corn) to feed the animals.]
In the ocean, 33% of marine fish stocks are overfished, 60% are maximally fished (fished to the limit) and just 7% are under-fished.
[The Global fish catch has increased by 5-fold over the past 50 year. Humans currently kill about 1500 billion wild fishes per year. Moreover, fishing industries that uses bottom trawlers to catch fishes causes massive destruction of the Coral reefs in the Ocean.]
25% of the world’s green house gas is caused by land clearing, crop production and fertilization, with animal-based food contributing to 75% of the figure. (i.e. 18% of the world’s green house gas is caused by animal-based food.)
The Report tells us that it is not too late to make a difference, but only if we start now at every level from local to global.
More info on the UN IPBES 2018 Report:
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/nature-decline-unprecedented-report/
UN IPBES Report Summary: (8 mins):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RoSih3hi5o
More info on Overfishing:
End of the line Trailer (Overfishing) : (1 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLMknBFyt0I
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UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) tells us that Human activity has altered almost 75% of the Earth’s surface, squeezing wildlife and nature into an ever-smaller corner of the planet and increasing risks of zoonotic diseases like COVID-19.
World Health Organization has warned that 75% of newly emerging diseases are zoonotic diseases. (Diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans).
UNEP advise that the health of our planet plays an important role in the emergence of zoonotic dieases (like COVID-19). As we continue to encroach on fragile ecosystems, we bring humans into ever-greater contact with wildlife, enabling pathogens in wildlife to spill over to livestock and humans, increasing the risk of disease emergence and amplification.
The “wild” must be kept “wild.” UNEP advised to restore the forests, stop deforestation, invest in the management of protected areas and tackle illegal wildlife trade to reduce the spread of zoonotic disease.
More info:
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/biodiversity/
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/04/1061082
COVID-19 was spread from bats-to-pangolins and pangolins-to-human in a life-animal market in Wu Han, China. The virus started spreading in the world from 2019 onwards.
Monkey Pox was spread from Monkeys-to-humans in Africa.
In 2022, it is currently spreading from human to human in the world. : (
UNEP : Deforestation and diseases: (1 min):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mobzZtAafus
UNEP: How nature can protect us from Pandemics: (1 min) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NUaC_Fp9qU
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To protect Biodiversity and Nature, Scientists world-wide has called for preservation of 30% of the world’s Nature Eco-system by 2030.
Currently, only 15% of the World’s Land and 7% of the Ocean are protected.
To increase the protected area to 30% by 2030 is a monumental task.
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In providing Solutions to the Biodiversity Loss crisis, WWF 2020 Living Planet Index Report shows that we cannot ‘Bend the curve of Biodiversity loss’ just by Conservation alone.
We must couple Conservation with Reduce Consumption (e.g. to reduce meat consumption by Half) to ‘Bend the curve’ to restore Biodiversity.
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With regards to land use change, 80% of Deforestation is due to expansion in Agriculture.
A 2018 UK University of Oxford report shows that producing meat and dairy provides just 18% of the world’s calories and 37% of protein but uses 83% of the world’s farmland. (All the rice/potatoes/veg/fruits consumed by humans are produced on 17% of the world’s farmland !!! The other 83% of farmland are used as pastures for the animals or fields to produce feed crops for the animals.)
Without meat and dairy consumption, global farmland use could be reduced by more than 75% – an area equivalent to the US, China, European Union and Australia combined – and still feed the world.
[ If the world reduce meat/dairy consumption by Half, we may free up 35% of the world’s farmland to grow forest. That would be a tremendous help to protect the Forest Ecosystems and reduce Biodiversity Loss on the planet.]
Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth:
With regards to protecting the Ocean, if people in the world reduce fish consumption/ stop eating fishes, we can stop the massive fishing industry and protect the ocean.
The meat/ fishing industries are driving Deforestation, Destruction of the Oceans and Biodiversity losses. Without a huge reduction in meat, fish and dairy consumption, we cannot effectively protect the Forest and Ocean Eco-systems.
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Plant Strong (Singapore Production) : (6 mins):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCVnOgQxCsA
The video mentions “Do unto others, what you like others to do unto you”. It is similar to a Universal law of “Good begets Good, Bad begets Bad.” The Scientific community knows this law as “Every Action causes an equal and opposite Reaction.”
In the esoteric sense, if the current 7 billion human population continue to rise and kill 70 billion land animals a year (most of them on Animal Factory farms with appalling living conditions), kill 1,500 billion wild fishes per year, cause massive destruction to our Forest/ Ocean Eco-systems and causes Mass Extinction of plant and animal species on the planet, we will cause immense suffering to the Animals, to the Fishes and to Nature itself.
Then, we cannot avoid the resulting consequences of Human sufferings such as Disasters (floods/ droughts/ tsunamis etc), wars, zoonotic diseases/pandemics and mass human destruction.
Thus, if we move more towards a plant-based diet, stop the massive killing of animals, stop Animal Factory farms and stop destroying Nature, it will reduce the suffering in the Natural world and consequently reduce the Disasters / pandemics that may befall humans.
“Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet”
– Albert Einstein, famous scientist, Nobel Prize in Physics (1921).
Let’s hope the human population take steps to move towards a plant-based diet, protect the Natural Eco-systems and lean towards a more sustainable future. :>
Low ck