This article, presented by the United Nations, highlights the negative impacts of biodiversity and the climate change crisis and signifies the importance of fighting them together. I feel that it’s very important to raise awareness about how to combat these issues since they can harm human lives, livelihoods etc. It is important to note that since both these issues are caused by human activities, they need to be tackled together.
Climate change and biodiversity loss are linked together and mutually reinforce each other. Climate change and global warming lead to a decrease in water, food availability as well as negatively affect forests and trees. As a result, biodiversity is harmed which causes adverse consequences for the climate through water, nitrogen and carbon cycles. This concept was new to me, might also be novel for many readers and could potentially explain why environmentalists haven’t been able to successfully mitigate these two critical issues.
The article explains a few ways, in which these two issues could be handled together so that positive outcomes can be achieved for both problems. These include:
- Protecting species and carbon-rich ecosystems on land and in the oceans such as forests, salt marshes etc. These can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere each year.
- Helping replenish species and carbon-rich ecosystems which would provide habitats for plants and animal species. This would benefit the climate by reducing flooding and soil erosion.
- Hindering any activities that harm biodiversity including overfishing and over-fertilization. As a result, this would help lower the negative consequences of climate change.
It is imperative to bring to the public’s attention that there are certain climate-change mitigating activities that are harmful and should be avoided as they could be damaging to biodiversity. The article addresses a few points that should be noted:
- Increasing irrigation size, which could result in problems like soil degradation etc.
- Planting bioenergy crops over a large area, due to its destructive impact on ecosystems.
- Strategies that specifically tackle climate change issues, and have little benefit in terms of overall environmental impact, should be minimized.
In conclusion, this article mentions that in order to see a positive impact on our environment and to shape a healthier planet, we must focus our efforts and financial resources to target biodiversity crisis and climate change issues together.
Reference:
Bonn. (2021, June 10). Tackling Biodiversity & Climate Crises together and their combined social impacts – united nations sustainable development. United Nations. Retrieved March 3, 2022, from https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2021/06/tackling-biodiversity-climate-crises-together-and-their-combined-social-impacts/
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 