September 23, 2020 The Dying Planet Report 2020 by Robert Hunziker
The World Wildlife Foundation, in collaboration with the Zoological Society of London, recently issued an eye-popping description of the forces of humanity versus life in nature, the Living Planet Report 2020, but the report should really be entitled the Dying Planet Report 2020 because that’s what’s happening in the real world. Not much remains alive.
The report, released September 10th, describes how the over-exploitation of ecological resources by humanity from 1970 to 2016 has contributed to a 68% plunge in wild vertebrate populations, inclusive of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish.
The report offers a fix-it: “Bending the Curve Initiative,” described in more detail to follow. The causes of collapse are found in human recklessness and/or neglect of ecosystems. It’s partially fixable (maybe) but don’t hold your breath.
What if stocks plunged 68%? What then? Why, of course, that is an all-hands-on-deck panic scenario with the Federal Reserve Bank repeatedly pressing “a white hot printing press button,” hopefully, avoiding destructive deflationary forces looming in the background. But, an astounding jaw-dropping 68% loss of vertebrates doesn’t seem to budge the panic needle nearly enough to count.
Of special note, according to the Report, tropical sub-regions were clobbered, hit hard with 94% loss of vertebrate life, which is essentially total extinction. For comparison purposes, the worst extinction event in history, the Permian-Triassic, aka: the Great Dying, of 252 million years ago took down 96% of marine life and has been classified as “global annihilation.”
According to the Report, on a worldwide basis, two-thirds (2/3rds) of wild vertebrate life has vanished in only 46 years or within one-half a human lifetime. That is mind-boggling, and it is indicative of misguided mindlessness, prompting a query of what the next 46 years will bring. What remains is an operative question?
According to the report: “Until 1970, humanity’s Ecological Footprint was smaller than the Earth’s rate of regeneration. To feed and fuel our 21st century, we are overusing the Earth’s biocapacity by at least 56%.” (Report, page 6) Meaning, we’ve gone from equilibrium to a huge deficit of 50% in less than 50 years. Putting it mildly, that’s terrifying!
As stated in the Report, we’re effectively using and abusing and trampling the equivalence of one and one-half planets. How long does that last? The experience of the past 46 years provides an answer, which is: Not much longer.
The denuding, destructing of natural biodiversity is almost beyond description, certainly beyond human comprehension, which may be a big part of the problem of recognition. Still, by and large, people read the World Wildlife Foundation report and continue on with business as usual. This lackadaisical behavior by the public has been ongoing for decades and not likely to end anytime soon. Therefore, an eureka moment of radical change in farming practices and ecosystem husbandry is almost too much to wish for after years, and years, of preaching by environmentalists about the ills associated with the anthropogenic growth machine.
In all, with ever-faster approaching finality, and worldwide failure to act to save the planet, the answer may be that people must learn to adapt to a deteriorating world.
More to the point, the Report is “an extermination report.” Consider the opening sentence: “At a time when the world is reeling from the deepest global disruption and health crisis of a lifetime, this year’s Living Planet Report provides unequivocal and alarming evidence that nature is unraveling and that our planet is flashing red warning signs of vital natural systems failure.” (Report, page 4)
Accordingly, unequivocally “nature is unraveling.” And, the planet is “flashing red warning signs of vital natural systems failure.”
Why repeat that disheartening info? Simply put, it demands repeating over and over again. Yes, “nature is unraveling.” And, by all indications, time is short as “flashing red warning signs” are crying for help. But, will it happen? Or, does biz as usual rattle onwards towards total extinction of life way ahead of anybody’s best guess, which, based upon how rapidly the forces of the anthropocene are gobbling up the countryside, could be within current lifetimes. But, honestly, who knows when?
Still, with great hope but not enough fanfare, the Report proposes a new research initiative called “Bending the Curve Initiative” to reverse biodiversity loss via (1) unprecedented conservation measures and (2) a total remake of food production techniques.
One of the upshots of the breakdown in nature is the issue of “adequate food for humanity.” Accordingly: “Where and how we produce food is one of the biggest human-caused threats to nature and to our ecosystems, making the transformation of our global food system more important than ever,” Ibid
Which implies the end of rainforests obliteration, the end of industrial farming, full stop, eliminating mono-crop farming, and “stopping dead in its tracks” the use of toxic, deadly insecticides, which kill crucial life-originating ecosystems by bucketloads, as for example, 75% loss of flying insects over 27 years in nature reserves in portions of Europe (Source: Krefeld Entomological Society, est. 1905).
What kills 75% of flying insects?
Additionally, the Report recognizes the necessity of “transformation of the prevailing economic system.” Meaning, a transformation away from the radical infinite growth hormones that are attached to the world’s lowest offshore wages and lowest offshore regulations as an outgrowth of neoliberalism, which is rapidly destroying the world. It’s a terminal illness that’s fully recognized around the world as “progress.” But, its unrelenting disregard for the health of ecosystems and for workers’ rights makes it a serial killer.
The wonderful world of nature is not part of the neoliberal capitalistic formula for success. In fact, nature with its life-sourcing ecosystems is treated like an adversary or like one more prop to use and abuse on the way to infinite progress. Really?
The Report alerts to the dangers of a “business as usual world,” an epithet that is also found throughout climate change literature. These warnings of impending loss of ecosystems, and by extension survival of Homo sapiens, depict a biosphere on a hot seat never before seen throughout human history. In fact, there is no time in recorded history that compares to the dangers immediately ahead. The most common watchword used by scientists is “unprecedented.” The change happens so rapidly, so powerfully. It’s unprecedented.
Meanwhile, people are shielded from the complexities, and heartaches, of collapsing ecosystems in today’s world by the artificiality of living a life of steel, glass, wood, cement, as the surrounding world collapses in a virtual sea of untested chemicals.
In the end, humans are the last vertebrates on the planet to directly feel and experience the impact of climate change and ecosystems collapsing. All of the other vertebrates are first in line. Maybe that’s for the best.
Still, how many more 68% plunges in wild vertebrate populations can civilized society handle and remain sane and well-fed?
Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.
Date: September 23, 2020 at 16:22:06 From: Eve, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: The Dying Planet Report 2020
Yes, It's why coronavirus/Covid-19 is what it is... for the lack of care of the planet from the world following a path of destruction. Disease becomes dominant there was said a day of rest was for us so this would not happen that we should destroy ourselves and forget what is truly important as in health...and so mankind would not loose their way but it's 24/7 round the clock destruction...the heart beats and rests if it continuously beats it's heart attack and bye bye cause the earth gets no rest, inhabitants get no rest.
What is so odd in Florida where I am is a few years ago it was insects galore but now there are barely any and same goes for birds. I have watched it happen all around me almost mind boggling how fast the deteriorating of the environment by man made causes ...as in urban sprawl at a pace so fast I don't have the words to describe. I think there was a visual of it I shared a couple years ago, now it's worse since then if I find I will post it.
I found a story at link from last year about concern over urban sprawl in the Tampa Bay county over infrastructure and that things are going to fast... But my major concern is for the health of the environment keeps getting worse as it affects the health of the inhabitants...but most of the inhabitants world has blinders on in that regard so we're going down sadly as that is where the majority...the beast is taking us.
There are infrastructure concerns I have not voiced in the clip however concerning the water quality however, where I am it's yucky and tastes yucky. What remains after I use the distiller residue gets worse and worse...almost looks somewhat bloody.
At link is a time lapse Y-Tube of Tampa Bay area going back 36 years or so though it ends with 2016 and since then it's a lot worse. The clips does not show the counties to the north and east and that is bad also. It's so dirty now...I have shoes I used to wear to work and store, etc. in boxes never had to clean the bottom but now I make one run to the grocery and the bottoms of my shoes are so dirty, unreal.
Responses:
None
17262
Date: September 23, 2020 at 11:06:35 From: JTRIV, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: The Dying Planet Report 2020
Date: September 24, 2020 at 13:57:10 From: Awen, [DNS_Address] Subject: Please post counter-information
As far as I can tell from all my reading elsewhere, this is consistent with what's happening, and true.
Or do you think mass extinction is something to not be bothered by?
Honestly, even since my childhood my area has become mostly a dead zone. Even the flies that used to plague us are gone. I haven't seen a housefly in two years. I haven't seen a honey bee in several years either.
Calling facts fear-porn is an interesting mode of propaganda and in this case it's so misplaced that if you're working for someone, you're getting a bit careless.
I take it as a reasonable assumption that any stranger on the internet is possibly paid to discredit information, so don't take offense at that....it just fits a pattern.
Date: September 24, 2020 at 22:08:17 From: JTRIV, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Please post counter-information
Hi Awen,
Where do you live??
Here in Middle Tennessee flies were common this summer, especially in July and August. Honey bees also have made a comeback here and mosquitos were thick.
Fear porn resonates with many... but there is little basis in fact in this type of drivel. As I've repeatedly pointed out ryan who likes this type of fear porn and often posts from fear porn site Counterpunch has no desire to see a clean energy revolution. Not unusual, fear porn typically interests those seeking TEOTWAWKI. They don't want clean energy for the people of Earth and would instead prefer a small population of humans living in harmony with nature... as if that has ever been possible.
Are you living in some unhealthy place? Have you considered moving? We have had a hot year, but reasonable precipitation and both vegetation and insects were especially thick this year. The population of deer is very high as well and I've seem more fat groundhogs this year than ever before.
Date: September 25, 2020 at 00:38:58 From: ryan, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Please post counter-information
anecdotal bs and you know it jim...you dream, but your children will pay...and everyone else's too...fear porn? imo, it barely catches the surface of the subject...you never have taken responsibility for your own part...there are plenty like you...all hat, no horse...no critical thinking...you keep thinking the well won't run dry...that won't help when you are dying of thirst...
Date: September 25, 2020 at 13:49:56 From: JTRIV, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Please post counter-information
Hi ryan,
> anecdotal bs and you know it jim...
I think you meant to say that is anecdotal bs and you know it Awen. It wasn't me that introduced the presence or absence of flies and bees as though they meant something. I simply commented where I live they are both flourishing.
Now if you want to talk about critical thinking I'd be glad to take up the subject of clean energy again.... which you openly oppose because you don't think the human race needs it.... which shows an extreme lack of critical thinking. This isn't some old hippy "stick it to the man" topic. The topic of climate change is about the burning of fossil fuels and the need for clean energy.
Personally I think when you realized climate change wasn't about bringing down the oil and coal companies you lost interest in solutions. You were always more for taking them down than any real solution. The human race isn't going to stop using energy and the only path forward is clear energy.
Dude... you constantly post fear porn but most realized years ago that alarmism simply doesn't help. For people that want to focus on "responsibility" instead of solutions maybe.... but fear porn is just foolish and isn't about a way forward.
Date: September 25, 2020 at 20:16:41 From: ryan, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Please post counter-information
one other important point...what you call "fear porn" is simply the truth...the facts...you have not refuted anything hunzinger and others say...i see a lot of huffin and puffin from you, but nothing of substance...we should all be afraid...we are tied to the tracks and there is a speeding locomotive coming, blowing its whistle not far down the tracks...and if you are following events, it is coming at us much faster than anticipated...and our so called leaders are too busy pulling their puds to do anything to help us get of the track...scary indeed...at this point, it doesn't much matter what has caused global warming/climate change...it is here, and accelerating rapidly...the only way it matters is the causes can be used to formulate a plan of action...unfortunately, our "leaders" are not action toys...
Date: September 25, 2020 at 22:46:12 From: JTRIV, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Please post counter-information
Hi ryan,
No matter who is in the seat of "leaders" for what country no one could have done much to change it up to this point. And it will take a clean energy revolution to solve the problem.
Emissions are going to rise and that is a fact. China replaced the US as the leader in emissions in 2005 and by 2017 (latest numbers I could find) China had DOUBLE the US emissions. India is now the 3rd largest emitter and is also growing at a fantastic rate. I'm not blaming them anymore than I would blame the ocean for the tide rising... just pointing out the obvious fact that global emissions are going to rise until clean energy can be developed. That is a fact no matter what our "leaders" do.
Date: September 26, 2020 at 09:13:56 From: JTRIV, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Please post counter-information
Hi ryan,
Have you ever considered making a doom board? That way people that give a damn about the environment and the future can post here and the ignorant doom crowd can post fear porn on the doom board? Might be a good way to separate those who want valid discussion from you misanthropes with your doom.
Dining at the destroyers table causes a worried mindset by way of a plethora of intoxicating indulgences for your flesh to blind your minds eye. If it's not true you would not be so concerned and rebelling against the truth. If you are standing on solid rock you would know you are in the jungle and how to navigate as well overcome it by knowing what to repent of. Or you may like the jungle which seems to be the real issue so you must know (or not) the Apollyon Road is a dead end. How to be in this world but not of it and not be in denial as to what this world is and what it is not is what is eluding you and the nature of the adversaries game...he has many muses and lots of songs about it to move his grove and..ahem...many othe Apollyon Road visuals for to gain the inhabitants worship cause it gives him the power of destruction when inhabitants partake of them. Necromancy rituals abound and surround in the jungle...this world.
Responses:
None
17287
Date: September 26, 2020 at 10:57:41 From: ryan, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Please post counter-information
still haven't disputed any of the facts i have posted...that would be valid discussion...woof woof...
The WWF comes out with their The Living Planet Report every two years and every two years sleazy journalists such as Hunziker turn it into fear porn. See link for discussion on how the media overhypes and misrepresents these every two year reports.
Date: September 29, 2020 at 10:07:54 From: ryan, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Please post counter-information
was just reading The Living Planet Report...sounds pretty much just what hunzinger and others are saying...scary stuff indeed...the truth is not "fear porn"...informing people as to what is going on is not "fear porn"...
The WWF report was plenty dire, no doubt. But trash journalists such as Hunzinger misrepresent what was in the report.
For example Hunzinger’s fear porn said:
“According to the Report, on a worldwide basis, two-thirds (2/3rds) of wild vertebrate life has vanished in only 46 years or within one-half a human lifetime. “
Yet the reference I posted directly addresses such misrepresentations.
But hang on, says National Geographic explorer and conservation scientist Stuart Pimm of Duke University, who was not involved with the report.
“Trying to take all those different data sets, from all over the world, and putting that in a blender and trying to break that down into one number is irresponsible,” Pimm says. “That’s disingenuous and not helpful.”
Look, I know you love the trash journalism and fear porn from an outlet with such low standards that they published 6 articles from an anonymous author who turned out to be the Russian government. But their goal is fear and extremism and fear porn which is why the publish such low quality and exaggerated articles. Hunzinger did exactly what the articles talk about in misrepresenting the Living Planet report, even going so over the top as to call his article The Dying Planet just to be a little extra sleazy.
But I do give Hunzinger some credit, he does know his target audience and writes to that low level. His shit just doesn’t stand up to anyone with critical thinking skills.
so in other words, hunzinger did accurately report what the report said, and one guy disagrees with that...or two, including you...you just seem to have a problem with counterpunch, and like the butt, keep screaming fake news!!!! hoax!!! not an effective way to debate issues but...
The Living Planet Report
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The global Living Planet Index continues to decline. It shows an average 68% decrease in population sizes of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish between 1970 and 2016. A 94% decline in the LPI for the tropical subregions of the Americas is the largest fall observed in any part of the world. Why does this matter?It matters because biodiversity is fundamental to human life on Earth, and the evidence is unequivocal – it is being destroyed by us at a rate unprecedented in history. Since the industrial revolution, human activities have increasingly destroyed and degraded forests, grasslands, wetlands and other important ecosystems, threatening human well-being. Seventy-five per cent of the Earth’s ice-free land surface has already been significantly altered, most of the oceans are polluted, and more than 85% of the area of wetlands has been lost.Species population trends are important because they are a measure of overall ecosystem health. Measuring biodiversity, the variety of all living things, is complex, and there is no single measure that can capture all of the changes in this web of life. Nevertheless, the vast majority of indicators show net declines over recent decades. That’s because in the last 50 years our world has been transformed by an explosion in global trade, consumption and human population growth, as well as an enormous move towards urbanisation. Until 1970, humanity’s Ecological Footprint was smaller than the Earth’s rate of regeneration. To feed and fuel our 21st century lifestyles, we are overusing the Earth’s biocapacity by at least 56%. These underlying trends are driving the unrelenting destruction of nature, with only a handful of countries retaining most of the last remaining wilderness areas. Our natural world is transforming more rapidly than ever before, and climate change is further accelerating the change.
Tigers, pandas and polar bears are well-known species in the story of biodiversity decline, but what of the millions of tiny, or as-yet-undiscovered, species that are also under threat? What is happening to the life in our soils, or in plant and insect diversity? All of these provide fundamental support for life on Earth and are showing signs of stress. Biodiversity loss threatens food security and urgent action is needed to address the loss of the biodiversity that feeds the world. Where and how we produce food is one of the biggest human-caused threats to nature and our ecosystems, making the transformation of our global food system more important than ever. The transformation of our economic systems is also critical. Our economies are embedded within nature, and it is only by recognising and acting on this reality that we can protect and enhance biodiversity and improve our economic prosperity. We can estimate the value of ‘natural capital’ – the planet’s stock of renewable and non-renewable natural resources, like plants, soils and minerals – alongside values of produced and human capital – for example, roads and skills – which together form a measure of a country’s true wealth. Data from the United Nations Environment Programme shows that, per person, our global stock of natural capital has declined by nearly 40% since the early 1990s, while produced capital has doubled and human capital has increased by 13%. But too few of our economic and financial decision-makers know how to interpret what we are hearing, or, even worse, they choose not to tune in at all. A key problem is the mismatch between the artificial ‘economic grammar’ which drives public and private policy and ‘nature’s syntax’ which determines how the real world operates.Together this evidence shows that biodiversity conservation is more than an ethical commitment for humanity: it is a non-negotiable and strategic investment to preserve our health, wealth and security. WWF LIVING PLANET REPORT 2020 89Can we reverse these trends of decline? WWF co-founded a new research initiative – the Bending the Curve Initiative – that has developed pioneering modelling, providing a ‘proof of concept’ that we can halt, and reverse, terrestrial biodiversity loss from land-use change. And the models are all telling us the same thing: that we still have an opportunity to flatten, and reverse, the loss of nature if we take urgent and unprecedented conservation action and make transformational changes in the way we produce and consume food. 2020 was billed as a ‘super year’ of climate, biodiversity and sustainable development meetings in which the international community had great plans to take the reins of the Anthropocene. The COVID-19 pandemic has meant that most of these conferences are now scheduled for 2021, and has provided a stark reminder of how nature and humans are intertwined. Until now, decades of words and warnings have not changed modern human society’s business-as-usual trajectory. Yet in times of rapid upheaval and disruption new ideas, creativity, processes and opportunities for transformation can arise. The future is always uncertain but perhaps the COVID-19 pandemic will spur us on to embrace this unexpected opportunity and revolutionise how we take care of our home.
You are better served posting the report itself instead of fear porn by sleazy journalists. And the link I provided referenced a National Geographic article and here is an Atlantic article on the same misrepresentations.
The Living Planet report is dire enough and really doesn’t need to be turned into fear porn.
Date: September 30, 2020 at 23:18:44 From: JTRIV , [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Please post counter-information
Hi ryan,
> it doesn't matter if it is only 50%...or 30%...it is a staggering number
On the contrary, it is the difference between journalism and fear porn. That is exactly my point. Most people would prefer an accurate representation and not falsehoods and exaggerations. This is why I say Hunzinger writes to the low level of his audience. Most Counterpunch readers are probably just like you and appreciate the fear porn without minding the exaggerations and misrepresentations.
You just have to remember that other people prefer to read things that aren’t lies.
Cheers
Jim
Responses:
None
17289
Date: September 26, 2020 at 15:32:57 From: Eve, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Please post counter-information
These are the days of the strong delusion...the days of Noah part 2, the end. Most are in denial and are distracted by intoxicants.
Responses:
None
17276
Date: September 25, 2020 at 14:06:00 From: ryan, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Please post counter-information
it seems you don't think, you imagine...there is no clean energy, except what we get directly from the sun...perhaps you mean cleaner energy, but that just means it takes a little longer for the effects to manifest...
Date: September 25, 2020 at 15:16:56 From: JTRIV, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Please post counter-information
Hi ryan,
Is that what the problem is? You don't know what clean energy means?? Perhaps instead of the fear porn trash you should be reading other more informative sources. No one quite knows what clean energy will be... possibly a more reasonable method of capturing and storing wind and/or solar.. but it doesn't exist yet.
The bottom line is that the 7 billion people on planet Earth are consuming more and more energy... especially as people are being brought out of poverty. The old hippy style blame the fossil fuel companies is a thing of the past as people have realized that humans need energy and that it has made people's lives better. It was never a productive thing and was only embraced by a small number of antiestablishment morons.
So go ahead and pray for a giant meteor to wipe out most of human life or whatever your hope is. That is your hope, right? I mean why else would you constantly promote alarmism and fear porn while opposing free energy. Regardless others are looking at the problem without your doom colored glasses and we should all hope they come up with a solution.
Date: September 25, 2020 at 18:36:47 From: ryan, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Please post counter-information
thanks for your succinct solutions jim...will put them into effect immediately...
Responses:
None
17278
Date: September 25, 2020 at 15:30:38 From: Eve, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Please post counter-information
No worries, sooner or later works of destruction will manifest as a fire in some sort or other on the day of reckoning....If you are not ready you are not ready... if you wait for a sign like a meteor you will be taken by surprise not being able to read the real signs around you.
Responses:
None
17271
Date: September 24, 2020 at 23:50:09 From: Eve, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Please post counter-information
Who are "they"? do you have a link with proof of this and who they are specifically this group? Is that reverse fear porn speak about the NWO stuff? You sound fearful btw..so I guess you think you are one of the ones "they" want to not be in "their" small population? wth?
Responses:
None
17265
Date: September 23, 2020 at 16:09:00 From: Eve, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: The Dying Planet Report 2020
No, it's true like the prophecy of how humans destroy the planet being bad stewards. Turn off pornhub and wake up.
Responses:
None
17264
Date: September 23, 2020 at 16:07:25 From: Eve, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: The Dying Planet Report 2020