Speaking at the annual World Economic Forum, an event attended by world leaders, moguls of industry, famous scientists and policy advocates (and yes members of the Trump family) sat a 16 year old Swedish girl named Greta Thunberg ready to deliver her speech. Amongst a crowd of powerful men and women many of whom came via private jet, she spoke in a soft, acerbic, yet assertive tone that it’s time to stop playing around when it comes to climate change.
“Adults keep saying we owe it to the young people, to give them hope, But I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is.” — Greta Thunberg (2019)
In a brilliantly composed three minute speech, Greta stated plainly the threats we face as a species, the fear she feels as a young person destined to live through its effects, and how half-measures, and technocratic approaches just are not enough. There’s power in stating plainly your wants and fears as it cuts through to the heart of our insecurities as humans, and leads us to hold true non-biased responses to the strongholds we place against reality.
A stark report submitted this week by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), rang loudly as a reminder to the disastrous consequences of decades worth of stalling and can-kicking to issues affecting the environment. A prognosis which if not addressed right away will lead us to a complete collapse of our biome, meaning not simply bad consequences, but an abrupt end to life as we know it on this planet. I am always cautious to have an alarmist tone when writing about the environment because frankly people do not like reading environmental disaster articles. It’s usually the lowest performing article topic online, as people think the problem too depressing and massive to tackle. However I urge you reader to not look away from the canary singing in the coal mine, to hope that in better science, technology and investment will save us. I don’t want your hope. I want you to panic.
Why it would be terrible to lose biodiversity
The importance in valuing biodiversity is not just our love for pandas at the zoo, or to be less sad about endangered species. Biodiversity is an interconnected network of life processes that we as human beings require (not need) to survive. For centuries of industrialization we as a species slowly separated and turned up our noses to the natural order of our lives, so much so that many have argued that “nature isn’t nature” anymore. However to diminish our role in biodiversity has also disregarded our responsibility to manage our place and care within that environment. Therefore in doing so we have valued superficially human measures of progress like “growth, security and happiness” over addressing the externalities that affect our living world in ways that only show up as costs in our spreadsheets and charts. However if the projections prove true, and our ecosystem collapses with projections showing that one million species will go extinct by the midway point of the century, we will be unable to make up the deficit left by certain species. One huge example is in bee colonies which are the primary pollinating species for the world. If they were to suddenly vanish in order for us to meet the demands towards our food supply we will need to pay people to hand pollinate crops, a process so expensive and unwieldy that it is functionally impossible to do on a world level. In the event of a massive extinction level event (which is what is posited by the report), the species most apt to survive and propagate in those instances will be burrowing insects and rodents. Heck, the reason why we exist as a species is because a tiny shrew species which shares our genetic evolutionary history with survived the extinction of the dinosaur by burrowing underground. That means that rodent and insect populations will be the dominant species which will intrude on our way of lives (including your home). Finally full collapses of our aquatic ecosystem would destroy whole communities which are not wealthy or resource rich enough to eat anything other than fish. This means that coastal communities in the Global South will be the first to go destroying cultures and communities along the way. The list goes on and on, but suffice to say the impact of our inaction would be sudden and severe.
Why we need to do better as environmentalists
A lot of the blame for the lack of environmental awareness falls on us as environmentalists for how we framed the discussion around the natural world. We used flowery language, pushed narratives on being connected spiritually and biologically. We as a the messengers, made it seem like a death of the soul rather than a death of the world economy and known human life. We told people about the issues, but always followed it with “if we’re not careful”, which is more of a warning to not touch a hot stove, then to reduce our consumption, waste and emissions. Unfortunately this line of argument is no longer effective. Thanks to years of industry imposed narratives, privilege in the Western world and consumption habits, we as a species will be consuming our way to a hard to survive scenario. We do not need to respect and value nature, we need to suck up to it, beg for its forgiveness and do it fast. We need to call ourselves out for the total incompetence in both ethics and innovation to truly start the process of rectifying the mistakes we made. It needs to happen now, not soon, not if we can find the courage, now. The house is on fire, it’s time we stop acting like there is an issue with the thermostat.