Wildlife, biodiversity and climate
A habitable climate depends on wildlife and biodiversity, because:
- Climate is a consequence of biodiversity and biodiversity is everything that ecosystems represent to life on Earth;
- A stable climate and therefore, a habitable Earth, depends on stabilising ecosystems; and
- Animals are the only mechanism that can do that.
As wildlife declines, we are breaking down biodiversity structure and losing energy (in the form of carbon) out of food chains and into the atmosphere and ocean. This way, climate and our food security are inextricably linked. We’re not only stripping soils of the material needed to feed us, we’re also introducing chaotic free energy into our atmosphere and causing huge fluctuations in the weather. The latter makes it harder for us to know when, where and how to feed ourselves.
Climate change: fossil fuels v. wildlife
Climate change has always been the symptom of biodiversity loss … that’s to say, the breakdown of the complex connectivity between lifeforms that allows Earth to flex in response to changing conditions.
Only recently have we created artificial climate change by mining carbon buried deep underground by animals millions of years ago. The animals that did that are no longer around and today’s animals, that would be busy moderating modern-day carbon, have populations that are heavily depleted.
We cannot engineer our way out of this crisis. We can only rebuild ecosystems rich in a diversity of animal life.
Latest posts about why the oceans are important
Ecosystems exist because of animals and biodiversity (the processes that deliver all our human life support needs) come from ecosystems. Conservation of wildlife is critical to human survival. According to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) 15 (Life on Land), we deforest 13 million hectares every year and have stripped soil fertility from 3.6 billion hectares. The ongoing destruction of wildlife habitat, trade in endangered species and persecution of animals, affects our access to the most basic life support needs of food and water. Here are 5 reasons to conserve land animals and ecosystems. Wildlife conservation is important and we must protect endangered species.
1. Over half the world’s human population depends on nature
Over half of the world’s human population directly depends on healthy landscapes and ecosystems for survival. About 1.6 billion depend on forests and 2.6 billion depend directly on agriculture for a living.
2. Conservation is essential for climate stability
The stability of climate and maximum capture of carbon depends on wildlife-rich habitats. The natural world can contribute about a third of CO2 reductions by 2030.
3. Wildlife provides global food security
About eighty percent of all the known species of land animals, plants and insects have been found in forests. At a scale of 25×25 cm, the most species-rich habitats on Earth are grasslands, such as those in central Europe. They are 7,500 times more species-rich than a hectare of the Ecuadorian rainforest. Our wildlife is essential to maintaining the biodiversity processes that build ecosystems and deliver soil fertility and food security.
4. Ecosystems are worth far more than global GDP
For human livelihoods and well-being, the value of land-based ecosystems has been estimated at $US125 trillion per year. That’s five times more than the global cost of the COVID pandemic, according to the International Monetary Fund and about $30 trillion more than the world’s GDP (estimates that don’t include nature-based value). This means the real GDP is double what we think it is: over $200 trillion and we’re massively underestimating the significance of nature.
5. Nature delivers critical fresh water
Mountains provide 60-80 percent of the Earth’s fresh water. Sustainable flow of clear and clean fresh water is dependent on healthy vegetation and this cannot exist without wildlife. Animals are the mechanism behind the diversity of vegetation and this is what binds soil processes together, stabilising landscapes and climate. Water scarcity will become one of our greatest challenges and can only be addressed, by rebuilding nature-based systems.
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Top 5 reasons to conserve ocean animals and ecosystems
Why is ocean conservation important? The temperature, chemistry and nutrient patterns of the ocean, as they relate to human survival, are regulated by animals. Without animals, the ocean would become…
