https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/nature-decline-unprecedented-report/
Biodiversity has been decreasing at a rapid rate in the current age and with this loss of biodiversity, there will be detrimental, permanent effects on the human population. The fundamental resources we derive from nature will decrease and possibly run out completely. If the resources run out completely, it would force humans to become more innovative and find new resources in the future or kill us.
In the past decades, humans have caused over 1 million plant and animal species to teeter on the brink of extinction. This was primarily caused by the following five factors that we contributed: Land use changes, exploitation, climate change, pollution and invasive species. We’ve built cities on once forested land, converted wetlands to suburbs and changed the naturalistic environment to better suit our own wants and lifestyles. We’ve exploited animals for meat, sport and other products made by animals. We’ve released so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that it’s actually warming up the climate – a feat no other single species of organisms have achieved in the whole history of the earth. We’ve invented plastic, a pollutant that is useful for one time uses but doesn’t degrade. Instead, it piles up and takes up space while animals eat it and die. There’s also by-products of factories and manufacturing systems such as heavy metals, nutrient runoff and various greenhouse/toxic gases.
By current projections, nature will continue to decline if we continue on without undergoing massive overhauls on the socioeconomical, political and individual views on nature and how to preserve it. If we go on as is, then the five factors will continue to increase at an unprecedented speed which is bad for humans in the long run.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 