In the last few years the debate about climate change has consumed most of the focus of environmental attention to the exclusion of other issues. Major new studies place that in perspective. Climate change is not the only threat to the environment and not the most serious one.
Rate of environmental degradation puts life on Earth at risk, say scientists Humans are ‘eating away at our own life support systems’ at a rate unseen in the past 10,000 years, two new research papers say
Humans are “eating away at our own life support systems” at a rate unseen in the past 10,000 years by degrading land and freshwater systems, emitting greenhouse gases and releasing vast amounts of agricultural chemicals into the environment, new research has found.
Two major new studies by an international team of researchers have pinpointed the key factors that ensure a livable planet for humans, with stark results.
Of nine worldwide processes that underpin life on Earth, four have exceeded “safe” levels – human-driven climate change, loss of biosphere integrity, land system change and the high level of phosphorus and nitrogen flowing into the oceans due to fertiliser use.
Researchers spent five years identifying these core components of a planet suitable for human life, using the long-term average state of each measure to provide a baseline for the analysis.
The loss of genetic diversity and the pollution of water resources are rated as the most serious threats. This is a function of both technological change and population increase. The expanding human populations have encroached on natural habitats and the drive to feed the expanding populations is depleting land and water resources.
It is a basic premise of ecological science that life forms must remain in some range of balance with each other. When a given species begins to exceed its food supply the natural consequence is for its population to decline. Homo sapiens have been clever enough to develop technology that extends the boundaries of these limits. They have moved from being hunter-gatherers to being agriculturalists to being industrialists. That has made possible a steady increase in population. However, this expansion has come at the expense of other life forms and the limits of that process may be in sight.
Nothing like this process has ever happened before in terms of the combination of impacts. There has been climate change in the distant past resulting from natural changes. Study of those effects provides some indication of what is happening with human induced climate change. Something like a general reduction is biodiversity is probably a new event. It is possible to anticipate various risks resulting from that, but there is no road map to follow.
The linked article provides a very good description of the processes that are underway. This is not just a matter of a loss of aesthetic quality of human life. It really may be about the capacity of the planet to continue to sustain life.