MADRID, April 20 (IPS) – The bleak picture drawn from scientific conclusions is indisputable and should be enjoyed by everyone, especially decision makers, whether they are politicians… or not.
The oceans are full of plastic and are more acidic. Extreme heat, wildfires and floods, as well as a record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season, has affected millions. Even these days, we still have to face COVID-19A worldwide health pandemic has implications for the health of our ecosystem.
Climate changeMan-made changes to nature as well as crimes that disrupt biodiversity, such as deforestation, land-use change, agricultural and livestock intensification, or the illegal trade in wildlife. Allowing ever-increasing wildlife, could accelerate the destruction of the planet.
Clear message. And now it is once again being released on occasion International Mother Earth Daymarked April 22, 2022, which coincides with the date UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration.
“The ecosystem supports all life on Earth. The healthier our ecosystem, the healthier the planet – and its people. Restoring our damaged ecosystems will help alleviate poverty, combat climate change and prevent mass extinctions…”
Peace with nature
Report of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) “Peace with nature: A scientific plan to tackle climate, biodiversity and pollution emergencies.“Transforming the current state of scientific knowledge into clear, clear, and digestible fact-based messages that the world can relate to and follow.
“Humanity is at war with nature. This is pointless and suicidal. The consequences of our recklessness are already evident in human suffering, towering economic losses and the growing erosion of life on Earth,” said António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General country, in its report.
Main truth
Many amazing truth was repeated for Mother Earth Day. Here are just some of them:
- No agreed global goal of protecting life on Earth and preventing the degradation of land and oceans has been fully met.
- Three-quarters of the land area and two-thirds of the ocean are currently man-made. One million of the world’s 8 million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction, and many ecosystem services essential to human life are being eroded.
- It is estimated that about one million species of plants and animals are currently threatened with extinction.
- The planet is losing 4.7 million hectares of forest every year – an area larger than Denmark.
- A healthy ecosystem helps protect people from these diseases. Biodiversity makes it difficult for pathogens to spread quickly.
- Environmental changes are impeding progress toward ending poverty, reducing inequality and promoting sustainable economic growth that works for all and peaceful and inclusive societies.
- The well-being of today’s youth and future generations depends on an urgent and explicit break with current trends in environmental degradation.
- The next decade is crucial. Society needs to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 45% by 2030 from 2010 levels and reach net zero emissions by 2050 to achieve the Paris Agreement target of 1.5°C, while conserving and restore biodiversity and reduce pollution and waste.
- Over the past 50 years, the global economy has grown almost fivefold, largely due to a tripling in energy and resource extraction that has fueled production and consumption growth.
- The world’s population has doubled to 7.8 billion, and although average prosperity has also doubled, around 1.3 billion people remain poor and about 700 million are hungry.
- The increasingly unequal and resource-intensive development pattern leads to environmental degradation due to climate change, biodiversity loss, and other forms of pollution and resource degradation.
Overproduction, overconsumption
Two more disturbing scientific findings are the fact that every year, 570 million tons of food are wasted at the household level, according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Food Waste Index Report 2021.
And meanwhile more than 800 million people are still hungry and global food waste accounts for 8-10% of greenhouse gas emissions. Food waste accelerates a tri-planetary crisis of climate change, loss of nature and biodiversity, pollution and waste.
There is a lot of information warning about the cruel war that is going on man has against Mother Nature.
Need to know more about what exactly climate change is and what does the Paris Agreement say? Also about what actions are being taken and who is performing them? What are the latest scientific reports on this topic? Can we make it in time to save Mother Earth? Explore it here.
Now or never
In its worth-reading report Climate change 2022: Mitigating climate changepublished on 4 April 2022, Working Group III for the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s scientists warn that “without immediate and profound reductions in emissions across all sectors, limiting global warming to 1.5°C is out of reach.” with”.
© Inter Press Service (2022) – All rights reservedOrigin: Inter Press Service
