Biodiversity at risk due to climate change

Biodiversity serves as a crucial asset for our planet. It can help meet all our needs, including those of future generations. However, we humans are gradually altering it in pursuit of a growth model that proves to be fundamentally flawed. Our behaviors, fueled by everyday actions that often go unnoticed, pose a threat to biodiversity, and inadvertently harm the planet we inhabit.

Biodiversity serves as a crucial asset for our planet. It can help meet all our needs, including those of future generations. However, we humans are gradually altering it in pursuit of a growth model that proves to be fundamentally flawed. Our behaviors, fueled by everyday actions that often go unnoticed, pose a threat to biodiversity, and inadvertently harm the planet we inhabit.

We are indeed facing an irreversible crisis where the planet shows a reduced percentage of fauna - fewer insects and mammals -, agriculture at risk, and an increase in pest species capable of jeopardizing the efforts of farmers and the ripening of products that are supposed to hat are supposed to be the basis of our livelihood. In this regard, we cannot afford to turn a blind eye as if all of this were irrelevant to us.

The causes of this profound biodiversity crisis are manifold, including the invasion of exotic species that contribute to a dangerously unbalanced situation by putting the indigenous flora and fauna at risk. A glaring example is the impact that the blue crab is having on our fishing industry.

Additionally, soil and water pollution play significant roles. Both are fundamental elements and endangering them can have serious consequences for the food chain and our ability to survive.

Moreover, the various human activities carried out are gradually eroding the natural environment; soils are less fertile and overly exploited, making it difficult for them to regenerate and be productive for the next harvest. There is also a concrete and worrisome reduction in the adaptive capacity of agroecosystems, exposing us even more to potential famines and extreme weather events.

To some extent, biodiversity protects us from the most extreme natural events; it enables us to have suitable soils for cultivation, trees to curb soil erosion, sufficient snow for adequate summer irrigation, ensuring a natural diversity that secures our survival on the planet.

From various quarters, it is emphasized that "governments lack sufficient determination to make decisions commensurate with the gravity of the moment. A decisive step forward is needed to reduce emissions and carbon footprint within the next few years to a level that prevents the risk of catastrophic effects."

In an open letter written by 15,000 experts in biodiversity and environmental issues during the recent COP28, it is pointed out that "climate change and loss of biodiversity are interdependent and synergistic threats, and current efforts to address them are not sufficient."

Moreover, the same experts stress that to halt the degradation of our planet, we must "protect natural landscapes and limit deforestation, restore key ecosystems such as wetlands, increase the biological diversity of degraded environments, rihabilitate rivers modified by human activity, improve agricultural and breeding practices towards more sustainable forms; these are all actions that can arrest the decline of biodiversity and simultaneously reduce emissions, maximize CO2 sequestration, and counteract the effects of climate change such as floods and erosion."

Our food system is causing approximately 80% of biodiversity loss: it is a thought-provoking fact, clearly demonstrating that our way of nourishing ourselves must somehow change if we want to save biodiversity, our future and that of our planet. "The planet thrives when biodiversity thrives," reminds us Slow Food, and protecting biodiversity means safeguarding all the cultures and stories that have developed on our planet over thousands of years, and this is something we must always bear in mind.

Translated by Iuliana Cindrea

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