Planet of the Apes 1968. Credit: Courtesy Photo

New York magazine sums up the UN’s new report on biodiversity:
Human beings are more prosperous and numerous than we’ve ever been, while the Earth’s other species are dying off faster than at any time in human history.

These two conditions are related. But if the second one persists long enough, we will be following our fellow organisms into the dustbin of geological history.

This is the primary takeaway from a new United Nations report on our planet’s rapidly diminishing biodiversity. Humanity is reshaping the natural world at such scale and rapidity, an estimated 1 million plant and animal species are now at risk of extinction, according to the U.N. assessment. Climate change is a major driver of all this death, but burning fossil fuels is far from our species’ only method of mass ecocide. We are also harvesting fish populations faster than they can reproduce themselves, annually dumping upward of 300 million tons of heavy metals and toxic sludge into the oceans, introducing devastating diseases and invasive species into vulnerable environments as we send people and goods hurtling across the globe, and simply taking up too much space — about 75 percent of the Earth’s land, and 85 percent of its wetlands, have been severely altered or destroyed by human development.


[NY Mag]

This article appears in May 2-8, 2019.

Getting hassled by The Man Mild-mannered reporter

6 replies on “As If the Normal Monday Morning Wasn’t Bad Enough: UN Report Highlights How We Are Destroying the Planet”

  1. The UN is sounding suicidal. Make sure they don’t own any guns.

  2. I remember in the 70s when they claimed we would run out of fuel oil. What went right?

  3. DaveP, we are. That’s why we have oil drills 100 miles out in the ocean and we’re squeezing oil and gas out of the rocks (shale and fracking). The fossil fuel companies are squeezing out every last drop before they switch to something else to extort you with.

  5. Thanks, Jamie, for hitting the nail on the head. Your choice not to procreate not only makes sense from the standpoint of the sort of disaster planet that your erstwhile kids would have inherited, it is also part of the solution.

    These problems are driven by two main factors: 1) there are way too many humans on this planet already, far more than it can sustainably support; and 2) those humans consume way too many resources, much of which is unnecessarily wasteful and driven by greed, especially in developed nations like the U.S.

    This report dispels the fantasy that we can continue to live so irresponsibly and expect our species to survive, even while a million others are winking out forever and the entire life support network of our planet is crumbling.

  6. Why do you guys get up in the morning? You have let indoctrination steal all the hope from your lives. That alone will create major negative impact on our world. Much of the corporate hatred is misplaced as they still need to produce something that the public wants and needs. Pharmaceuticals, test equipment and technology all come from an ever expanding world. Embrace it and enjoy it.

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