U.N. assessment on biodiversity

[EgonSpengler]

It turns out that Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) may have been prescient in at least one way: In that book, animals are mostly extinct. The recent Global Assessment report by Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is evidently beyond dire.

UN.org - UN Report: Nature's decline 'unprecedented'; Species extinction rates 'accelerating'
The Washington Post, May 6, 2019 - One million species face extinction, UN report says. And humans will suffer as a result.
The Guardian, May 6, 2019 - Human society under urgent threat from loss of Earth's natural life

This is more than 'mere' climate change, it sounds like. You've probably heard about "colony collapse disorder" among bees; plastics appearing in fish and ocean-going mammals; "white nose" fungus in bats; and the sudden, dramatic decline in the biomass of insects around the world. The report looks at things like the use of agricultural fertilizers, which have produced "dead zones" in the world's oceans totaling an area about the size of the United Kingdom.

Here in the US, we have a rather important election coming up in 18 months, and I'm not sanguine yet that our electorate is up to making serious change. Democrats are talking seriously about taking a calculated, deliberate step backwards, like a football/soccer team passing the ball back in order to find another route towards the goal later. What about other countries? I heard, some years ago, that if France ceased all carbon emissions - 100% - China's growth would make up the difference in 1 year anyway. I don't know if anything's changed since then. I've also heard that Indian cities today resemble American industrial hubs of the 1950s in terms of air pollution. I think Indian air pollution comes mainly from vehicles rather than factories and foundries, but I don't know if that makes any difference in terms of effects or possible solutions.

Some US cities are doing things like banning single-use plastic shopping bags. Some are looking at drinking straws next, and restrictions to discourage private vehicle usage in crowded areas. New York City is gingerly poking around the edges of vehicle restrictions for southern Manhattan similar to City of London's. I also heard the other day that 5% of Americans self-identify as fully vegetarian or vegan. That's all fine, I suppose, I'm happy that anyone is doing anything, but it sounds like peeing on a house fire to me. Am I being too cynical? Are we all f'd, or should I just relax and have one of these meatless burgers that Burger King is selling? I hear they're not bad.

 

[Lexicus]

We're all screwed, it's best to just try to get your mind to a place where you find it all funny rather than terrible.

 

[metatron]

We're all screwed, it's best to just try to get your mind to a place where you find it all funny rather than terrible.

I'm trying. I really am.
But i get waylayed by angry social justice bros all the time.

Random thought:
The SJW who is confronted with actual humor does the same shade of red face as the early 2000s dad on Fox News who's mad about his daughter having sex and betraying Jebus.
Random thought:
We need a teint measure for the red faces of angry white men of all political backgrounds.
I wonder if we can bring lobsters into this somehow.​

Point being: If you want cynicism for yourself, it'd be nice if you'd grant it to everybody.

 

[Hrothbern]

It turns out that Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) may have been prescient in at least one way: In that book, animals are mostly extinct. The recent Global Assessment report by Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is evidently beyond dire.

UN.org - UN Report: Nature's decline 'unprecedented'; Species extinction rates 'accelerating'
The Washington Post, May 6, 2019 - One million species face extinction, UN report says. And humans will suffer as a result.
The Guardian, May 6, 2019 - Human society under urgent threat from loss of Earth's natural life

This is more than 'mere' climate change, it sounds like. You've probably heard about "colony collapse disorder" among bees; plastics appearing in fish and ocean-going mammals; "white nose" fungus in bats; and the sudden, dramatic decline in the biomass of insects around the world. The report looks at things like the use of agricultural fertilizers, which have produced "dead zones" in the world's oceans totaling an area about the size of the United Kingdom.

Here in the US, we have a rather important election coming up in 18 months, and I'm not sanguine yet that our electorate is up to making serious change. Democrats are talking seriously about taking a calculated, deliberate step backwards, like a football/soccer team passing the ball back in order to find another route towards the goal later. What about other countries? I heard, some years ago, that if France ceased all carbon emissions - 100% - China's growth would make up the difference in 1 year anyway. I don't know if anything's changed since then. I've also heard that Indian cities today resemble American industrial hubs of the 1950s in terms of air pollution. I think Indian air pollution comes mainly from vehicles rather than factories and foundries, but I don't know if that makes any difference in terms of effects or possible solutions.

Some US cities are doing things like banning single-use plastic shopping bags. Some are looking at drinking straws next, and restrictions to discourage private vehicle usage in crowded areas. New York City is gingerly poking around the edges of vehicle restrictions for southern Manhattan similar to City of London's. I also heard the other day that 5% of Americans self-identify as fully vegetarian or vegan. That's all fine, I suppose, I'm happy that anyone is doing anything, but it sounds like peeing on a house fire to me. Am I being too cynical? Are we all f'd, or should I just relax and have one of these meatless burgers that Burger King is selling? I hear they're not bad.

I think it is a bit like preparing your yacht for a storm and no port near enough. We will have to ride out the storm.

The still increasing global population and habitat destruction, the vast amount of pollutants.... we cannot U-turn like a speedboat... we are like a big mammothtanker... this will need generational changes in everything.

I think it is so much bad that we need to create "Arks of Noah" eco-reserves.
Big enough eco-reserves spread over the Earth to cover all the many kinds of habitats, at big enough scale size, to cover enough kinds of organisms, to have at least the possibility to re-spread them all over the world again, once we have ourselves under control.

The scale size of "untinkered with" habitats is important, to keep the gene pool diversity per species high enough.
Eco-bridges as well important between smaller habitats.

 

[civvver]

When politicians tell me not to eat meat and drive electric cars then they fly on private jets to their next speaking event it enrages me. So yeah it feels like peeing on a house fire.

 

[EgonSpengler]

We're all screwed, it's best to just try to get your mind to a place where you find it all funny rather than terrible.

That's definitely possible.

Point being: If you want cynicism for yourself, it'd be nice if you'd grant it to everybody.

I don't want it for myself, I think it's just a knee-jerk reflex. I'd prefer to be hopeful, but so far, I see little reason to be.

I think it is a bit like preparing your yacht for a storm and no port near enough. We will have to ride out the storm.

The still increasing global population and habitat destruction, the vast amount of pollutants.... we cannot U-turn like a speedboat... we are like a big mammothtanker... this will need generational changes in everything.

Yes, there's no question we're a lumbering tanker and not a nimble yacht. One of the things in this report that has me even more worried than I was is its use of words like "accelerating" and "unparalleled." Rather than a storm on the horizon, imagine our supertanker is heading towards the coast, and we're gaining speed.

 

[Lexicus]

That's definitely possible.

I don't want it for myself, I think it's just a knee-jerk reflex. I'd prefer to be hopeful, but so far, I see little reason to be.

"There is no life....in the Void....only....death"
-Sauron

 

[Hrothbern]

Yes, there's no question we're a lumbering tanker and not a nimble yacht. One of the things in this report that has me even more worried than I was is its use of words like "accelerating" and "unparalleled." Rather than a storm on the horizon, imagine our supertanker is heading towards the coast, and we're gaining speed.

Yes.... accelerating and unparalleled... it's time to keep our heads cool
And do all the actions that do not need much resources (money etc). Big actions will not (yet !) be understood by the masses, as long as there is no clear visible evidence. But I do believe the big masses will NOW accept precautions at the cost level of an insurance, that safeguard our biodiversity in eco-reserves.
Trying to do and protect every area at the same time is beyond our means and change ability potential: we need to get our priorities right for actions... and use the damage in the other areas to convince our fellow citizens.

When I was young, and saw the issue looming in the 70ies (Club of Rome Report, the underwater docs of Jacques Cousteau, etc)... I never thought I would end up thinking like this... But time has run out.
We are spaceship Earth.

We have already for that reason since 1984 build up as a last ditch safeguard one Ark in Spitsbergen (Norway Island group) in an old coal mine: the Svalbard Global Seed Vault for many plant seeds (500 per species for genepoll diversity).

The Nordic Gene Bank (NGB) has, since 1984, stored backup Nordic plant germplasm via frozen seeds in an abandoned coal mine at Svalbard. In January 2008, the Nordic Gene Bank merged with two other Nordic conservation groups to form NordGen.[9] The Svalbard Global Seed Vault officially opened on 26 February 2008,[2] although the first seeds arrived in January 2008.[10] Five percent of the seeds in the vault, about 18,000 samples with 500 seeds each, came from the Centre for Genetic Resources of the Netherlands (CGN), part of Wageningen University, Netherlands.[11]
As part of the vault's first anniversary, more than 90,000 food crop seed samples were placed into storage, bringing the total number of seed samples to 400,000.[12] Among the new seeds are included 32 varieties of potatoes from Ireland's national gene banks and 20,000 new samples from the U.S. Agricultural Research Service.[13] Other seed samples came from Canada and Switzerland, as well as international seed researchers from Colombia, Mexico and Syria.[14] This 4-tonne (3.9-long-ton; 4.4-short-ton) shipment brought the total number of seeds stored in the vault to over 20 million.[12] As of this anniversary, the vault contained samples from approximately one-third of the world's most important food crop varieties.[14] Also part of the anniversary, experts on food production and climate change met for a three-day conference in Longyearbyen.[15]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault

But this one ofc covers not enough seeds/plants for all the interactions between all the kinds organisms.
There are bacteria, fungi, insects, etc, etc, that all need eachother to survive. So many don't knows there.
=> we need big enough eco-reserves as well.
But still... those do not need to cost that much money. And often no more than regulation for protection (difficult with Trump when minerals are there, but a worthy first stage action and fight)
The value of a tropical forest is the NPV of the future profits of for example a palm oil plantation.... That is not really that much compared to the big investments needed for the renewable green economy.
We could as the rich West, even rent tropical forests, to keep them intact. The rent somewhere north of the govt tax on the profits of those plantations (to compensate those governments).
Maintenance on those eco-reserves will be low for the simple organisms from bacteria to birds etc.
We had in the Netherlands the lowest amount of forest IIRC in 1732. And then it became a hype among the wealthy (Nature thinking, Rousseau, etc) to own nature reserves for hunting (a couple of times a year) and forests were re-planted (and is still increasing). By now almost all are owned by the government.

 

[El_Machinae]

When politicians tell me not to eat meat and drive electric cars then they fly on private jets to their next speaking event it enrages me. So yeah it feels like peeing on a house fire.

I don't do those things. And I'm begging you to help reduce the environmental footprint

But, for a perspective shift, ExxonMobil also has words about the climate change threat, and their CEO has a private jet as well.

 

[Narz]

I just hope I have money for my doomstead for my family and me before it's too late.

If you invest now I make consider saving room on my ark for you and yours.

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

I mean, on an individual level I applaud your changes, but it's really the world's largest 100 companies and wealthiest 10% to blame here, so unless we plan on subbing out a meat based diet for a CEO based diet, and can reorient everyone from Republicans, to Bolsonaro, to Modi, to Trudeau, to Xi, and more, towards not destroying more forests and stuff, I'd try not to be too hard on yourself. The Beyond Burgers are ok. The texture is pretty good but the aftertaste still is slightly off. They work. I've tried to cut down substantially on beef. We keep our heating very low and AC very high. Try to carpool when we can.

But yeah we're screwed.

 

[civvver]

Exactly. Like I'll eat chicken and turkey all day. Sustainable fish like sardines. I skip bagging groceries when I can and especially don't understand why produce goes it its own little bag only to be put in another bag. But stuff like electric cars aren't economically feasible for me because our politicians and companies have decided not to invest heavily enough in them or at least not soon enough.

 

[El_Machinae]

There are many things that are pretty easy.
Don't support your yard becoming a big mono-culture. Vacation close. Purchase fewer non-essentials from far away. Spend on reducing your fossil fuel needs. Earmark donation dollars to people actually fighting for change. Paying people to change the world is pretty essential given how much we give to CEOs trying to milk the system.

 

[Lexicus]

Paying people to change the world is pretty essential given how much we give to CEOs trying to milk the system.

You are making me do emotional labor for this post, here's my venmo

 

[El_Machinae]

I'm surrounded by liberals that are unwilling to spend a single Cent defending themselves, but can always find money to pay off their Visa bill for their Caribbean vacations. None of my message is intended for people scraping by

 

[yung.carl.jung]

I mean, on an individual level I applaud your changes, but it's really the world's largest 100 companies and wealthiest 10% to blame here, so unless we plan on subbing out a meat based diet for a CEO based diet, and can reorient everyone from Republicans, to Bolsonaro, to Modi, to Trudeau, to Xi, and more, towards not destroying more forests and stuff, I'd try not to be too hard on yourself. The Beyond Burgers are ok. The texture is pretty good but the aftertaste still is slightly off. They work. I've tried to cut down substantially on beef. We keep our heating very low and AC very high. Try to carpool when we can.

But yeah we're screwed.

Exactly. Like I'll eat chicken and turkey all day. Sustainable fish like sardines. I skip bagging groceries when I can and especially don't understand why produce goes it its own little bag only to be put in another bag. But stuff like electric cars aren't economically feasible for me because our politicians and companies have decided not to invest heavily enough in them or at least not soon enough.

it's also this kind of thinking that's responsible.

do you order stuff from amazon? do you have a car? do you shop in supermarkets or get your stuff local? could you cut back on plastic?

the real mind**** is that our current lifestyles in and of itself aren't nearly sustainable: constant fresh water, plumbage, electricity en masse, insane amounts of food, insane mobility resulting in insane carbon footprints, producing never before seen quantities of trash, toxic waste, nuclear waste-- all those things which are to us basics of modern human existance are all contributing factors to a big mess we don't have control over. are China and India bad? sure they are. so is methane from cows, and so is a million other things we do. we're all working together when it comes to trashing the planet, it's the most efficient we've ever been as a species.

it may feel weird at first, but I've accepted that I'm a pretty cancerous being that, by mere virtue of existing in a postindustrial world, is literally contributing to the downfall of the planet day by day, post by post

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

Even that is hard though, particularly for the mass of consumers/citizens/etc., who are strapped for time and money. Buying local can be worse than buying from a chain if the local place has to expend a lot of energy to bring it to you. A local greenhouse running 24/7 is much harder on the environment than having some truck bring it in from many states over. You literally can't exist in America without a car, either.

I've cut back. I've also given time and money to politicians who are trying to change things. But the reality is the ruling class is so insulated. Americans by and large support a GND and accept global warming. The majority party doesn't, and the wealthiest people in the world literally don't give a crap.

 

[The_J]

We have already for that reason since 1984 build up as a last ditch safeguard one Ark in Spitsbergen (Norway Island group) in an old coal mine: the Svalbard Global Seed Vault for many plant seeds (500 per species for genepoll diversity).


But this one ofc covers not enough seeds/plants for all the interactions between all the kinds organisms.
There are bacteria, fungi, insects, etc, etc, that all need eachother to survive. So many don't knows there.
=> we need big enough eco-reserves as well.

I sat this morning in a conference, the first talk was by asomeone from the "barcoding of life" project. They basically try to catalogue as much as possible, as part of biodiversity research. This means in this cas a specimen, a picture of it for a database, geo coordinates, and sequencing of a phylogenetic marker gene (mitochondrial cytochrome C oxidase), maybe in the future the whole genome. This is a proxy only for actual proper taxonomic classification, but the only thing which is time and money-wise feasible.
He said that Norway expressed some interested in a secondvault for this.

Yesterday evening another taxonomist said after a presentation that before you can put a species on the endangered species list, you first need to formally describe it. Which basically will take longer for all species than they exist, they will be extinct beforehand. That bureaucracy is a bit sad.

 

[Estebonrober]

The Anthropocene is going to be quite the epoch. It might just be the worst extinction event in Earth's history.

 

[Lexicus]

The Anthropocene is going to be quite the epoch. It might just be the worst extinction event in Earth's history.