Biodiversity is the total variety of living organisms — from blue whales and white-tailed deer to wildflowers and microscopic bacteria. It can be measured on a global scale, but it’s also crucial to the health of local ecosystems.
Healthy ecosystems provide key ecosystem services like reducing carbon dioxide, protecting water quality and providing habitat for animals and plants. But biodiversity loss is hurting these ecosystems and our economies. In a single year, an estimated 1 million species disappear from the Earth. That’s why it’s time to take action to protect the biodiversity that makes life on Earth possible.
Human activities are causing species to disappear at an unprecedented rate. We must change our ways to prevent an environmental crisis that’s already affecting our health and the economy.
From beaches smothered in sargassum seaweed to coral reefs under threat from climate change, biodiversity loss is all around us. The good news is that we can solve it. By protecting more wild places and restoring damaged ones, we can improve the lives of billions of people who depend on nature for food, water, shelter, jobs and recreation.
We can also slash hunger and malnutrition by ensuring that people have access to nutritious foods from sustainable sources, such as fish caught in protected marine areas. And we can limit the impact of climate change by increasing the number and size of wild spaces that capture and store carbon. Research shows that nature can deliver up to 30 percent of the emissions reductions needed to avoid a climate catastrophe, so biodiversity is an important part of the solution.
About the Author
