The world is not facing but is already in an environmental disaster. In the last 50 years, 60% of wild animals have disappeared. Every year more than 70 million square kilometers of forests are cut down, every year about a third of the world's fish population goes extinct due to overfishing.
Birds are becoming extinct, forests are being cut down and biodiversity is impoverished - this is what surveys and studies show.
There is no doubt that the two cyclones that recently hit the coast of East Africa and caused a heavy disaster, were more powerful because of deforestation in Mozambique, which in recent years has lost trees in an area of 370,000 square kilometers, which is 15% of the forest areas it had. This loss is due to wild logging by foreign companies for the coal industry and clearing areas for agriculture, according to Global Forest Watch. This despite attempts by the authorities to limit its cutting.
The severe damage to biodiversity due to deforestation is evident in the Gorongosa National Park, which is located at the southern end of the "African depression" where there was a diverse and special population of wild animals due to logging, the reserve is dwindling and the animals are disappearing.
The world is not facing but is already in an environmental disaster. In the last 50 years, 60% of wild animals have disappeared. Every year more than 70 million square kilometers of forests are cut down, every year about a third of the world's fish population goes extinct due to overfishing.
In Africa the situation is more difficult as it is expected that by 2050 more than 50% of all birds and mammals will be lost. African lakes lose about 30% of their fertility. Half a million square kilometers of African lands are no longer fit for cultivation due to poor use, weathering, salinization and pollution.
The grim situation and the danger to the natural environment were the reasons for the conference that took place in the second week of April where representatives of 90 governments and organizations met in Addis Ababa to discuss a plan called "a framework for development after 2020". This program is part of the UN's Convention of Bio-Diversity (CBD)
There was an agreement among the representatives that the current framework defined asAichi target (Aichi Targets) does not exist and is not progressing and cooperation is needed to ensure the existence of a "(new) framework for development after 2020".
The representatives agreed that one of the most important solutions to harming biodiversity is strengthening indigenous societies, thereby promoting the recovery of biodiversity. Valuation of "nature's services" every year reaches 125 trillion dollars. An amount that constitutes a scale of socio-economic development through cooperation in the correct utilization of resources. The push for sustainable utilization of resources is at the foundation of the activity of organizations such as Campaign for Nature which calls for the protection and conservation of 30% of the land and sea by 2030.
The latest IPBES report Shows the efforts of African governments to protect biological diversity with an understanding of its contribution to society and people, with the understanding that the integration of natives and local knowledge in these efforts and increasing their activity in the protection of territories must be at the top of the "framework for development after 2020". Despite this report, it is clear that not enough has been done and that more can and should be done.
According to Glenn Horowitz of Eretz Goluda Mighty Earth, deforestation causes more pollution than all the cars, ships and planes in the world, therefore "it is essential to protect all the forests that still exist". The need to protect forests becomes clearer and stronger after every storm and every environmental disaster.
According to the "Treaty for the Struggle in Midbor" United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
For many years there was insufficient appreciation of the importance of forests. Forests maintain biodiversity, regulate water cycles and weather and even provide the air we breathe. A third of the solutions to climate change are found in the correct use of land, which includes the protection of forests.
It is hoped that the conference in Addis Ababa will increase the activity of African governments to protect the forests and the natural environment in Africa.
And I will add that a significant and important part of the solution is when instead of controlling the environment for the sake of the human population, there will be control of the human population for the sake of the environment.
3 תגובות
"Every year about a third of the world's fish population goes extinct due to overfishing"
This means that in 12 years only 1% will be left
As far-fetched as it sounds, the rest of the article is hard to believe
Not a single problem. There is an accumulation of problems that are related, if not to say complicated one within the other. The two main problems I see is an increase in the human population that threatens the... human population. The time has come (I hope it hasn't passed) to deal with the problem. The second problem is a wired economy, whose products do not take into account the cost of harming the environment. I skimmed over the subject of the Venus project and he reminded me, associatively, in terms of resource sharing, of a kibbutz in its heyday. In my humble opinion, because of human nature and the consumer brainwashing we have gone through, it is necessary to use the existing economic system instead of building a new system.
Each product must embody, in a gradual manner, the damage it causes to the environment and set aside from its price for its restoration. This will direct the economy to a circular economy and more sustainable products, even if more expensive in the first instance.
We talk about the problem and nobody talks about the solution, only a resource-based economy in the approach of the Venus project will save the planet, but you continue to ignore...