A Crisis of Nature ⇥ bbc.com
Matt McGrath, BBC News:
From the bees that pollinate our crops, to the forests that hold back flood waters, the report reveals how humans are ravaging the very ecosystems that support their societies.
Three years in the making, this global assessment of nature draws on 15,000 reference materials, and has been compiled by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). It runs to 1,800 pages.
The brief, 40-page “summary for policymakers”, published today at a meeting in Paris, is perhaps the most powerful indictment of how humans have treated their only home.
It says that while the Earth has always suffered from the actions of humans through history, over the past 50 years, these scratches have become deep scars.
The report has some advice that we can individually use to try to help, but it is clear that any global problem like this one can only be addressed through far more radical policy initiatives. It is also clear that the people who can best affect change are those who care the least to do so.