From the earliest days of space travel, seeing the whole Earth left many astronauts wonderstruck by what they saw out their spaceship windows. From the perspective of space, the planet hangs in infinite blackness, beautiful, fragile, and alive. But what the Overview Effect reveals in Earth’s grand magnificence, it obscures in detail.
On the ground, the living color of the natural world is increasingly denuded of its vibrance and variety.
The 2024 Living Planet Report from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) paints a stark picture of the state of global biodiversity. The findings should serve as a jangling wake-up call, emphasizing two key points: first, that the natural world is under siege, and second—and this is pivotal—the urgent need for transformative actions to halt and reverse the loss of nature before we reach catastrophic tipping points.
Living Planet Report: Measuring Nature’s Decline
The report uses data from the Living Planet Index (LPI), which monitors changes in the abundance of wildlife populations over time. The latest LPI data unveils an alarming 73 percent decline across tracked wildlife populations between 1970 and 2020.
The latest data reveals a devastating 73 percent decline in monitored wildlife populations between 1970 and 2020. This figure is based on nearly 35,000 population trends across 5,495 species of amphibians, birds, fish, mammals, and reptiles.
The decline is not uniform across ecosystems and regions:
- Freshwater ecosystems have been hit hardest, with an 85 percent decline
- Terrestrial populations have decreased by 69 percent
- Marine populations show a 56 percent reduction
Latin America and the Caribbean are the most seriously affected, with a 95 percent decline in wildlife populations. Africa is next, at 76 percent, and the Asia-Pacific region is declining by 60 percent.
Why Biodiversity Matters
Biodiversity is more than preserving species for their own sake, though that is reason enough. It buttresses the very systems that sustain human life and societies. Healthy, biodiverse ecosystems provide critical services, including:
- Clean air and water filtration
- Food security and nutrition
- Natural medicines and pharmaceutical discoveries
- Climate regulation
- Disease control
- Mental health
Despite these essential benefits, “every indicator that tracks the state of nature on a global scale shows a decline,” the report says. Diminishing biodiversity compromises critical ecosystem services, threatening human health, well-being, and the stability of our societies. These threats are interrelated and comprehensive.
Some examples include:
Economic Instability
Biodiversity loss can harm our economy. Many industries, like agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and tourism, depend on the services that biodiversity provides. When these services decline, it could lead to economic instability and crashes in some sectors. A 2021 World Bank report estimates that the collapse of select ecosystem services provided by nature could result in a decline in global GDP of $2.7 trillion annually by 2030.
Food Insecurity
Declining biodiversity endangers global food security. It affects soil and water quality, which are fundamental to food production. Reduced biodiversity makes our food supplies more vulnerable to pests and diseases, potentially leading to crop failures and food shortages. About 75 percent of food crops have become extinct since 1900, primarily due to overreliance on a handful of high-producing crop varieties.
Health Risks
Biodiversity loss increases the threat of disease outbreaks. It can disrupt natural disease regulation processes, potentially leading to more frequent and severe epidemics. Additionally, biodiversity loss limits our ability to develop medicines and pharmaceuticals for future diseases.
Water Scarcity
Reduced biodiversity can lead to an irregular or short supply of fresh water. This could result in water conflicts and increased competition for this vital resource, destabilizing communities and regions.
Social Tensions
As natural resources become scarcer due to biodiversity loss, increased competition and conflict over remaining resources could result. Decreasing resources can exacerbate social tensions and displacement of communities, potentially leading to armed conflicts.
Cultural Loss
Many communities, especially indigenous peoples, have deep cultural ties to their local biodiversity. Its loss can erode cultural practices and traditional knowledge, resulting in social instability and loss of identity.
Reduced Resilience
Biodiversity plays a critical role in ecosystem stability. As biodiversity declines, ecosystems become less resilient to environmental changes, including those caused by climate change. This reduced resilience can lead to sudden ecosystem collapses, which can have cascading effects on human societies.
Economic Inequality
The impacts of biodiversity loss are disproportionately felt in developing countries. Vulnerable and marginalized communities depend directly on local ecosystems for their livelihoods, and biodiversity impacts in these communities will exacerbate existing inequalities and social tensions. This raises issues of environmental justice.
Global Interdependence
Given the interconnected nature of our global economy and ecosystems, biodiversity loss in one region can have ripple effects worldwide. This highlights the need for international cooperation to address this crisis but also increases the potential for global instability if action is not taken.
Approaching Tipping Points
One of the most concerning points in the report is the warning about ecological tipping points. These are critical limits where ecosystems undergo sudden, often irreversible changes that can have profound effects. Several global tipping points are nearing, including:
- Mass die-off of coral reefs
- Transformation of the Amazon rainforest
- Collapse of ocean circulation patterns
- Melting of major ice sheets and permafrost
Local and regional tipping points are already being observed, such as in North American pine forests, the Great Barrier Reef, and parts of the Amazon. Once these tipping points are crossed, the damage to Earth’s life-support systems could be catastrophic and potentially irreversible.
Falling Short of Global Goals
Despite international agreements and targets aimed at addressing biodiversity loss, climate change, and sustainable development, the progress made has been woefully inadequate:
- Over half of the Sustainable Development Goal targets for 2030 are likely to be missed
- Current national climate commitments would lead to a global temperature increase of nearly 3°C by 2100.
- National biodiversity strategies lack adequate financial and institutional support
The Need for Transformative Action
The report emphasizes that incremental changes are not enough to address the scale of the crisis. We need transformative action across multiple sectors:
Conservation: Expanding and enhancing protected areas, supporting Indigenous land rights, and implementing nature-based solutions.
Food Systems: Transforming food production and consumption patterns to reduce their impact on nature.
Energy Systems: Rapidly transitioning to renewable energy sources to mitigate climate change and reduce habitat destruction.
Green Finance: Redirecting financial flows towards nature-positive investments and away from harmful activities.
Earth to Humanity: It’s Time to Act
From the heavens, the interconnectedness of life on our fragile planet is wonderfully apparent. On the ground, we too often suffer from a shifting baseline syndrome, not aware of the changes occurring around us until it is too late.
The 2024 Living Planet Report is a critical reminder of the interdependent crises of biodiversity loss and climate change. It underscores the urgent need for coordinated, transformative action across sectors to halt nature loss, mitigate climate change, and ensure a sustainable future for both people and the planet.
While the challenges are immense, decisive action can prevent the most catastrophic outcomes. Individuals, communities, businesses, and governments all have a role to play in protecting and restoring biodiversity. The time for action is now—our future depends on it.
