03 June 2010

World Environment Day is approaching. Events will take place across the world on June 5 to promote environmental awareness and to pressure political bodies to take action on important issues.

2010 has been declared the International Year of Biodiversity by the United Nations. Biodiversity is not only important for preserving individual species and habitats, but is also essential for maintaining the ecosystem services we rely on, such as food, clean water and fuel.

The UK has a Biodiversity Action Plan to monitor and protect our biodiversity. The latest figures from it estimate that over a third of the high priority species in Wales are declining or have been lost since the last assessment.

Economically, biodiversity loss is also a bit of a nightmare. ‘The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Study’ could well be the most influential report since ‘The Economics of Climate Change’ by Lord Stern in 2007.

The study was undertaken by leading economist and senior banker, Pavan Sukhdev, and the resulting report is expected to announce that the ratio of costs of conserving natural ecosystems to the benefits of doing so range from one to ten, up to as much as one to 100.

Natural ecosystems play an essential role in supporting human civilisation, but we’re currently living in the age of the sixth mass extinction. The last time Earth experienced one of these was roughly 65 million years ago, when a meteorite collided with the Yucatan Peninsula and led to the extinction of the dinosaurs.

However, this mass extinction is due to the destruction of numerous habitats faster than species can adapt to suit them. If they can’t adapt to altered habitats, the only other viable option is to move, but the corridors that once made this possible are now largely absent or blocked. The remaining path to take is extinction.

The silver lining is that, because this mass extinction is largely caused by us, it is not an unpredictable event that we can do nothing about. Reversing the biodiversity crisis is one of the biggest and most complex challenges to face our generation, and it will take global participation and skills from all walks of life to solve.

World Environment Day has been celebrated on June 5 since 1972. In Cardiff, the National Museum of Wales is holding an ECOfair on the day to celebrate it, which includes an informal Q&A session at 2pm. The theme this year is ‘many species, one planet, one future’. It may be clichéd but it’s all we’ve got.

- as published in the latest issue of gair rhydd, Cardiff's student newspaper