A new study by the United Nations published Monday revealed that due to humans one million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction.
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The relentless pursuit of economic growth, twinned with the impact of climate change, has put brought forth this risk.
Only a wide-ranging transformation of the global economic and financial system could pull ecosystems that are vital to the future of human communities worldwide back from the brink of collapse, concluded the report, which was endorsed by 130 countries, including the United States, Russia, and China.
“The essential, interconnected web of life on Earth is getting smaller and increasingly frayed,” said Professor Josef Settele, who co-chaired the study, released in Paris Monday by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
“This loss is a direct result of human activity and constitutes a direct threat to human well-being in all regions of the world.”
Compiled by 145 expert authors from 50 countries, the study is a cornerstone of an emerging body of research that suggests the world may need to embrace a new “post-growth” form of economics if it is to avert the existential risks posed by the mutually-reinforcing consequences of pollution, habitat destruction, and carbon emissions.
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Known as the Global Assessment, the report found that up to one million of Earth’s estimated eight million plants, insect and animal species are at risk of extinction, many within decades.
Industrial farming and fishing are identified as major drivers of extinction. Climate change due to the fossil fuel industry is aggravating the situation.
Robert Watson, a British environmental scientist said one could go back only if societies were prepared to confront “vested interests” committed to preserving the status quo.
“The report also 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,” Watson said in a statement.
“By transformative change, we mean a fundamental, system-wide reorganization across technological, economic and social factors, including paradigms, goals, and values.”
"We know that the way people eat today is often unhealthy for them and for the planet," said Dr. Kate Brauman, one of the report's authors.
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"We can become healthier as individuals by eating more diverse diets, with more vegetables, and we can also make the planet healthier by growing that food in more sustainable ways."
The Global Assessment contained a litany of estimates made after a three-year review of some 15,000 scientific papers that showed the profound impact of the rise of a globalized industrial society on the planet over the past half-century.
The loss of the natural world would also affect human lives according to the report. From the disappearance of insects vital for pollinating food crops, to the destruction of coral reefs that support fish populations that sustain coastal communities, or the loss of medicinal plants, all would inevitably risk human lives.
The threatened list includes more than 40 percent of amphibian species, almost 33 percent of reef-forming corals, and more than a third of all marine mammals. The picture was less clear for insect species, but a tentative estimate suggests 10 percent are at risk of extinction.
“We have been running from one frontier to another frontier trying to find cheap nature (to exploit) in every corner of the planet,” Eduardo Brondizio, a professor of anthropology at Indiana University in the United States who co-chaired the Global Assessment, told Reuters.
“The key message: business, as usual, has to end.”