The decreasing biological diversity is a danger to the economy and the health of the inhabitants of the planet

Here is a transcript of a discussion that took place this week on CNN and which dealt with biological diversity in the program 'Boundaries of the Earth' will be broadcast on Saturday August 28 at 11:30, 17:30, and 23:30; On Sunday, August 29 at 08:30 and 20:30, and on Monday, August 30 at 06:30 on the CNN network. You are invited to watch the program.

Here is the transcript of the program that was broadcast for the first time on Wednesday, August 26, 2010

Becky Anderson, CNN host: Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth at all levels, from genes, to species, to entire ecosystems. Biodiversity is essential for maintaining the systems that provide us with food, fuel and other essential services.

So what happens when some of these ecosystems are threatened by humanity's desire for economic growth? Will some of our most unique ecosystems be sacrificed in the name of progress? And having lost it, will biodiversity ever recover?

That is why the UN declared 2010 as the "International Year of Biodiversity," but currently we are destroying biodiversity at an alarming rate. The losses are irreversible, but we can prevent them.

During the next half hour, we will hold a discussion about some of the urgent challenges before us and to answer the question, what is the importance of biological diversity.

Text: Biodiversity means the number, and the variation in the variety of creatures found within a defined geographic area.

Conservation of biodiversity is considered by environmental experts as the number one goal of environmental policy.

Anderson: "Welcome to this special edition of Borderlands, broadcast this month from the air-conditioned house at Kew Gardens in London, England, the most appropriate place to host this discussion on the importance of biodiversity.

And if you are struggling to find your way around such a diverse topic, I can tell you that you are not alone. But at the end of the program I hope we will all understand more about the meaning of biodiversity and how important it is to all of us. I will now introduce our distinguished panel members for today:

Dr. Paul Smith is the head of the conservation department at Kew Gardens, and director of the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership. Ahmed Jughalf is the UN responsible for biodiversity and the year 2010, the year of biodiversity. And John Williams is the man who changed to take biodiversity and turn it into a business risk."

And today we will hear Philippe Cousteau. A prominent member of the Cousteau family who continues the work of his father and grandfather by educating all of us to preserve the environment.

Anderson continues: "Let's start with a simple question, but one that many of us are waiting for an answer to. Ahmed, what exactly does biodiversity mean?

Ahmed Djoghelaf, Conference on Biological Diversity, United Nations: "Biological diversity is life. Two months ago, we issued a global review regarding biodiversity, a document that reviews the state of biodiversity in 2010. This review is not only based on the scientific literature, but also on national reports provided to us by 120 governments and participants. We asked to see what is happening on the subject at the local, regional and national level in different countries."

"And the result is really scary. The reports prove that we are about to reach - if the current trend continues - the tipping point where irreversible damage will be caused to large ecosystems such as the marine ecosystem. Therefore, the security of the planet is in danger. The loss of biodiversity in the face of climate change has now become a matter of peace and security."

Anderson: Let's hear what Philippe Cousteau says about biodiversity

Philippe Cousteau, environmental expert (in a video clip): "Well, of course, biodiversity has been an important component of our natural global ecosystem since the beginning of time, since life began on this planet, but today it's even more important because it's disappearing so quickly. "

"I believe that in the 21st century we are beginning to understand how important natural systems are, the services that nature provides for our livelihood, for the global economy, for our health, for our very survival on this planet.

We are losing biodiversity at a rate at least 100 times greater than the natural rate, and this is something that both ecologically and in terms of individual species, I think this is one of the biggest crises we face as we enter the 21st century.

Anderson: “Paul, how did the Millennium Seed Bank come into the picture?

Dr. Paul Smith, Director of the Millennium Seed Bank: The Millennium Seed Bank is the largest of its kind in the world. We work in over 50 countries to save plant seeds before they become extinct.

This is very important because we are trying to preserve the plants in their natural environment, but considering the fact that we occupy more than 80% of the earth and this has an effect, a negative effect on the variety of plants. We think that common sense demands that we collect and save seeds for as long as we can.

Anderson: John, I know you believe that biodiversity loss is a bigger threat than even climate change, how?

John Williams Lead Partner Responsible for Sustainability and Climate Change at Price Waterhouse Coopers:: Well, if you think that one of the great successes of the last century was the economic development of the world, but this development had a huge cost on the earth's resources and economic growth had an impact on Biodiversity is already extreme. If we continue the growth, then the economic cost would be something between 2 and 4.5 trillion dollars a year. "

Now, let's put things in context. The calculation is based on an economic cost greater than that caused by climate change, but it is also more immediate because the effects of biodiversity loss are happening now and will have a greater impact on business. Governments should certainly be concerned. Non-profit organizations have been worrying about the problem for many years, but the leaders and business people are the ones who need to understand how biodiversity is going to affect their future profits."

Anderson: John, right away we'll look at how the loss of biodiversity affects big business, and the risks and rewards

Text: The economic impact of the loss of biodiversity will eclipse that of climate change, but only 27% of all CEOs are slightly or very bothered by the loss of biodiversity. PWC conducted research on biodiversity and business risks.

Anderson: John, in the same way that climate change is no longer a concern of environmentalists but also of governments and their businessmen, so too seems to be biodiversity. Can businesses afford to ignore biodiversity?

Williams: Absolutely not.

"Businesses really need to start understanding the impact they have on global nature, but also their dependence on nature. And if they have already begun to see the capital that comes from nature, and you know, the business depends as an extension of the asset base - if you will, the plantations and machinery - there is no way they will reduce the value of this right. In fact, they will find ways to preserve and increase the value of the asset in their supply chain.

A small example, the pharmaceutical industry is worth 600-700 billion dollars a year and is 40-60% dependent on biodiversity. Why wouldn't the CEOs of the pharmaceutical companies want to preserve the natural capital they depend on?

Emderson: Turning the question to Paul

Paul: "If you look at the pharmaceutical industry, we know that there are thousands of strains used in traditional Chinese medicine, in traditional medicine in India and Africa, because this is our place for innovation. Now all this - because plant diversity gives us an opportunity to innovate not only in the field of medicine, but also food and everything else, and if we bring it to extinction it is a huge risk for us, because we will reduce our options in the future.

Anderson: Ahmed?

DJOGHLAF: Yes, biodiversity is the natural asset of the world, and therefore also of societies. Ignoring your natural asset will destroy your business. Therefore the businesses of tomorrow should be green and will be green.

We live in an era of scarcity and therefore, the businesses that have already begun to gather opportunities are the ones that are going to succeed.

Anderson: We have a quick thought from Philippe Cousteau.

Cousteau: Well, I think one of the first things we can do is start to properly value economically the ecosystem services that biodiversity provides and the environment provides for us. I will give two examples of this.

During the tsunami in Southeast Asia and during Katrina, the hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico that devastated Louisiana and Mississippi, natural services that could have provided protection through mangrove swamps (in Asia) or coral reefs in the case of Louisiana were not provided. And so these storms - the tsunami, the hurricanes managed to penetrate the coastline and claim the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and cause damages of hundreds of billions of dollars.

These are two big examples that illustrate how we need to begin to understand the true economic value that these ecosystems provide, so that we can bring them into account. When you lose the loss of biodiversity there is damage to the product and growth of the country because you have to pay for it in the end. In other words, the cost takes a new form and you did not avoid it.

And I think if we can start - and I know there's a lot of effort to create economic models that consider the value of preserving biodiversity to put a price tag on it. This is one big step forward in understanding that protecting biodiversity is essential to protecting life on this planet. "

Anderson: John, I assume Philippe Cousteau's words make sense to you.

Williams: Absolutely, for example the example of the mangroves that he uses is fantastic. So you look at the profit for the shrimp farmers instead of the mangroves it is about 1,200 dollars per hectare per year. If you look at the real economic value of these mangroves it is closer to 12,000. So why is it rational to destroy the mangroves and cause huge damage to the economy - the reason is market failure.

And if there is a market failure, governments must intervene to ensure that the true economic cost is reflected in the fact that it is greater than the short-term profit that business can make, in this case, from destroying mangroves.

Anderson: Of course, that's where the Millennium Seed Bank comes in. How much does it actually cost to save one species of plant, Paul?

Smith: "It costs the seed bank around $3,000 to save one species of plant. So obviously very economical. We can store a billion seeds in a five by three meter room, in a very small area. But the key here is that we use the seed. We maintain a ratio of seeds that will allow us to grow the plant in the autumn.

Anderson: What is the opportunity cost of saving seed against each other?

Smith: Well, we obviously do a prioritization based on the national priority in the countries where we operate, but mainly that of the most threatened species, the rarest minnipes, and the ones most useful to people.

Anderson: Ahmed, one of your jobs is to convince governments that this is important. how are you doing with it

Djoghalaf: "I think the governments are convinced of the main fact that this treaty was signed and ratified by the parliaments of 193 countries, only one government did not join - the United States of America. And we definitely believe that the time has come for the United States of America to join the great biodiversity family, because the world needs the USA and the USA needs the world.

Anderson: If big business is going to come up with a so-called plan, they need to be properly informed about it

Williams: No, they are starting to do it and if they see that it is necessary even without a strong resolution, and even without tax incentives. Businesses involved do so because it makes economic sense to do so.

And to give you an example, one of the world's largest shipping companies invested in the Paraguayan rainforest. It may seem strange that the shipping company wants to own the rainforests, but the prediction is that they will be subject to carbon emission caps in the future. They really understand the value of forests in terms of carbon emissions, and therefore, for them, this is the most cost effective way to protect themselves from these regulations in the future.

"The incentive comes from information, it is from the ability of a company to be innovative, as well as to protect itself from the carbon regulations, it preserves the rainforest and also protects the livelihood of the people who are going to depend on it, it does this so that both nature benefits and the economy."

The oceans - the cradle of life

The oceans cover 70% of the Earth's surface. Current trends predict a collapse of all species of wild seafood currently available by 2050

Cousteau: The oceans, which for far too long have become a popular dumping ground for humanity, are at the forefront of biodiversity loss. We see that fishing quantities are collapsing and we estimate that populations of large fish such as swordfish, sharks and tuna have been greatly reduced. Already today we see that many species of sea turtles are in danger of extinction, and 25% of the coral reefs have disappeared and 25% are going to disappear by the middle of the century. Scientists have predicted that if we continue our current behavior when it comes to fishing in this world, that all major fish stocks will collapse commercially by the middle of this century. The oceans are the frontline of both biodiversity and climate change.

ANDERSON: Gentlemen, I want to talk now about how the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico might illustrate the business risks of ignoring the issue of biodiversity. And, Ahmed, President Obama recently compared the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to the 11/XNUMX attacks. You must be happy to hear that.

Djoghalaf: I think President Obama was right in what he said. I think this is valid not only for the ecosystem, the marine ecosystem and the United States, but rather for the rest of humanity, and not just the business companies.

Anderson: Let's hear what one of the Facebook users says. Ecofinder from Kenya says, "The answer lies drastically in reducing the wasteful lifestyle and consumption and not in a million more analyzes or studies that we conduct on the topic of ecological environments - under different names." broad bean:

Smith:
Smith: Yeah, I mean, I think that's absolutely true. There are effective ways to save as long as we start valuing the natural capital in every action we do. This will help us manage it better. I like the quote by Aldo Leopold, the American naturalist about 60 years ago who said, only a fool would ignore parts that seem unnecessary and useless. Taking care of every screw and wheel is the first and foremost precaution of Poz.

What the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico shows us is that we are doing much more recklessly when dealing with the planet. And a large part of the actions we do are not intelligent. But it also shows us that all animals and fasts are somewhere at the base of the food chain, it is important that the ecosystems remain intact and ultimately the livelihood of people and our existence on this planet depends on this.

Cousteau has the right of the last word: "I am always an optimist, the philosopher Abart Gamir once wrote that in the absence of hope one must create one." I don't think we are in the worst situation. There is hope because we started this dialogue, the panel discussion today in a global forum, and I believe that awareness today is different than it was fifteen and certainly 20 years ago."

On the same topic on the science website:

• By the middle of the 21st century there will be no fish left in the sea
• Biodiversity and the world's poor
• Biodiversity - the grass wars