Gambling on the Future
We humans are a peculiar species. We have the ability to marvel at the enormity of galaxies and at the intricate structure of particles, yet many of us know little of the living environment that surrounds us or of our impact on it. Indeed, we share our small planet and its limited resources with millions of other species, yet we continue to exploit these unsustainably. Why is biodiversity so undervalued by modern societies?
Only last month, governments and experts from many of the world’s nations gathered in Pyeongchang in Gangwon Province. There an Olympic ski resort, complete with manicured lawns and casino, was converted for a fortnight to host the biannual meeting of the Intergovernmental Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and other associated high-level meetings. Much of the main meeting’s focus was on assessing progress toward meeting the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, which since 2010 have called for every nation to reduce the rate of loss of natural habitats and to stop the decline of threatened species within this decade. As reported in opening statements on October 6, however, more species are globally threatened in 2014 than in 2010, and many important habitats continue to be degraded, some at increased rates. The Aichi Targets, like earlier targets, will therefore likely be missed, unless there is an immediate change in policies and lifestyles.
We should all be deeply concerned by this collective failure. After all, biodiversity is the web of life that surrounds and sustains us. The ongoing degradation and loss of biodiversity does not only mean the near-future extinction of rare and exotic species like giant pandas or spoon-billed sandpipers; it also means the decline of common species. The barn swallow, for example, used to be abundant throughout Korea, often nesting in people’s houses. In the past few decades, however, it has declined by perhaps more than 99%, and many children born this century have never even seen one. The rapid rate of decline has apparently been driven by agricultural practices that now take more than the land can give, even while the nation elects to import the majority of our food. And of course, the swallow is but one of a huge number of species in decline, each indicating the demise of the ecosystems of which they are a part, putting at risk future national and global food security.
The CBD meeting should have provided a great opportunity to mobilize public support for biodiversity conservation, but there was little media coverage or public attendance. Nonetheless, the Pyeongchang casino provided an apt setting: after all, we are now gambling with our planet’s future.