Speciose Weekly - February 8th, 2021
In Brief: New Report on the Economics of Biodiversity; Legal Precedent on Climate Accountability; Dams, Cities, & Pollution; Heroic Hedgerows; and much more...
Welcome to this past week’s slightly behind-schedule edition of Speciose Weekly, a newsletter about biodiversity and why it matters, by me, Nick Minor.
For more about the Speciose Weekly newsletter, check the about page and my recent post on the stakes for biodiversity in 2021.
Normally, history plods along slowly and quietly. The arc of our days is louder than the arc of decades or centuries.
But lately, the arc of decades has been pretty damn loud.
This loud clamor of history has pushed pointedly toward a greener, more harmonious future, toward equity for all people, and, in a peculiarly western way, as we’ll see, toward the recognition that humanity and the diversity of earth’s other species are, bound thread by thread, part of the same vital fabric.
Let’s do a tiny review. In recent weeks and months, we’ve witnessed historic civic demonstrations for racial equity, and for the climate future generations will inherit. Some of the world’s most powerful economic forces—the corporations who have gotten fat off an unsustainable breed of capitalism—are making real moves toward a healthier relationship with our living planet. Many governments, in the turbulent shocks of a pandemic, have committed to a green and just recovery—one that won’t simply turn away from countries unable to recover while carrying the heavy aftermath of colonialism.
And, just this past week, a report on the “economics of biodiversity” amassed the most forceful evidence yet that economy and ecology are two sides of the same coin.
Why is a starchy economic report of interest to us? This 600-page report, the “Dasgupta Review”, led by Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, is unlike previous pleas for conservation, which are usually taken up only by the most ardent special interest groups. The Dasgupta Review is aimed squarely at the mainstream (read: mainstreaming nature). And thanks to its cast of institutional supporters, it has the clout and gravitas it needs to do it.
This report won’t singlehandedly change how the world’s many cultures think about nature. But a mighty first domino it is. Written for institutional investors and financiers, for policymakers, and for business leaders, the report signals a sea change away from an economic doctrine that’s disembodied from the living world.
This sea change could not be more important: in the coming decade, we have one last chance to reimagine our relationship with each other and with other species, from the nuts and bolts of economies and infrastructures to the high ideals of civic responsibility and justice.
So, after the biodiversity-related news from this past week, you’ll find an embedded video presentation of the Dasgupta Review. I encourage you to watch it. And, for time-tested or wannabe wonks, I’ll put the link to the report PDF, in all its glory, there too. We will keep the report—and it’s re-conception of our economies’ place in nature—close in mind as we approach the Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of Partners this May.
For now, though, let’s get to last week’s news.
News
Simple, concrete connections between biodiversity and current events.
1. It Is Illegal to Lapse on Climate Commitments, French Court Rules
It’s rare for environmental commitments to come with tangible accountability measures. Without accountability, commitments can too easily degrade into mere lip service, as has been the case for the Aichi biodiversity targets.
Now, the world has legal precedent for one accountability measure: lawsuit. In a case raised by a coalition of non-governmental organizations, which accused the French government of insufficient action after the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, the Administrative Tribunal of Paris ruled that there were legally “wrongful deficiencies on the part of the state in implementing public policies to allow it to achieve objectives it had set on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.”
The key word here, as stated above, is precedent. While the technicalities of this case may be specific to France, the ruling shows how states can be held accountable for climate commitments in the future. After this year’s Convention on Biological Diversity COP, the French court’s ruling may inspire legal efforts to hold governments accountable for biodiversity commitments as well.
(Reuters)
2. United Nations Study Finds Hundreds of Dams Near End of Their Lifespans
Few single pieces of infrastructure have a greater impact on other species than dams. And for that reason, few pieces of infrastructure so clearly illustrate how conservation and infrastructure can be surprisingly tight-knit.
Now, that tight-knit association is near a tipping point. A recent UN study finds that worldwide, nearly 19,000 large dams are approaching their typical lifespan of 50 years. After that point, dams are more likely to experience structural failure and other risks, leaving major repair or removal as the only options. Fragile, aging dams have already been under increased pressure from floods linked to climate change, leading to a number of deadly disasters. These disasters include what has been called the deadliest structural failure in history:
[In 1975], the Banqiao Dam in Henan, China, burst, sending a wave of water 7 miles wide and 20 feet high downriver at 30 miles per hour. It killed an estimated 26,000 people directly, including the entire population of the town of Daowencheng. As many as 170,000 more died during an ensuing famine and epidemics.
The human risks are staggering. But the risks that even functional dams pose to other species have been staggering for decades. These risks include cutting off important migratory corridors for aquatic species like salmon, leading to different light and temperature environments underwater, and changing water chemistry through erosion of nearby land.
The question is this: will the world’s governments take on the Herculean task of repairing or removing dams proactively to avoid human risks? And, in so doing, will they prioritize the restoration of nearby ecosystems long stunted by river damming?
3. U.S. Cities Tend to Undercount Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 20%
Turns out Covid-19 cases aren’t the only thing U.S. cities are undercounting.
Like in new and rapidly growing areas of scientific research, U.S. cities still have no standardized means for reporting emission data. Many cities have developed their own data collection and reporting standards, which makes it challenging to compare emissions data from city to city. Worse still, many cities fail to consider important sources of emissions, leading to eye-popping underestimates. Cleveland, Ohio, for example, appears to be underestimating their emissions by as much as 90 percent.
Why does this matter for biodiversity? Because the science of biodiversity—like climate science—is deeply dependent on counting: which species are where? What are their population trends? What documented causes could explain these trends? Without robust, standardized data, it’s near impossible to get a sense of what’s really happening. This detachment from reality, more than almost all else, stifles progress on any issue.
4. Decoupling Pollution and Economic Growth: A New Study Shows How
Here’s an interesting question: Is it possible for an economy to grow without sacrificing some aspect of the environment? Or, in other words, can economic growth be “decoupled” from exploitation of the environment?
In most countries on Earth, the answer has long been no: natural resources/ecosystem goods must be harvested to supply demand, and pollution is an inescapable byproduct. But recently, a new study wove together economic, fossil fuel consumption, and satellite air pollution data to identify counties who have already managed to decouple growth and destruction.
The study finds that developing countries are most likely to link pollution with growth. But new renewable energy technology, clean environment standards, and economies based more on clean technology and agriculture, some countries have bucked the trend. These countries include mega-economies like China, many European countries, and even, to some extent, the United States, whose air pollution and fossil fuel emissions have fallen in recent years and decades.
If environmental exploitation is unnecessary to keep an economy afloat, then arguments that juxtapose economy with ecology—the common claim that environmental protections like the Endangered Species Act can only stifle jobs growth and wealth accretion—are increasingly out of touch with the available evidence.
5. General Motors Claims It Will Stop Selling Gasoline Cars and SUVs by 2035
Moral of the story: GM is reading the writing on the wall.
This is, of course, after years of consistent (and expensive) effort to erase the writing on the wall—critical perspective provided by Emily Atkin in a recent edition of the Heated newsletter, where Atkin adds context to GM’s recent Super Bowl commercial.
And while this commitment comes with no legal accountability measures—and is currently no more than public relations lip service—I include it here because of what it symbolizes. 30 percent of U.S. emissions have come from the transportation sector, a status quo that GM, one of North America’s largest automobile corporations, has defended vehemently. But now, if the corporation is suddenly hiring Will Ferrell to make a cute E.V. ad, we may be nearing a major sea change in transportation—not just in the marketplace, but also in American culture.
These dual shifts, if they take place rapidly, are sure to have a myriad positive effects on ecosystems and non-human species.
6. New Report Shows Oceans’ Top Predators in Freefall
Sharks and rays are estimated to have declined some 70 percent since 1970—and that’s just what we know with the limited available data. With declines like these, as much as three-quarters of oceanic shark and ray species may be at risk of imminent risk of extinction. If these extinctions take place, they will lead to a chain reaction, an ecological cascade, through marine ecosystems, causing unhealthy boom and bust cycles in prey species, ultimately endangering them to extinction themselves.
And as prey species go extinct, many countries food security will be at risk as well. The countries hit hardest by so-called “chains of extinction” will produce a new kind of refugee: extinction refugees, people who are forced to move elsewhere in search of food sources that have not gone extinct. Together with climate refugees, refugees of ecological collapse will only add to the strain on global food systems.
So, what’s causing these declines? Overfishing, both deliberate—fishing for shark and ray fins—and incidental—where sharks are caught accidentally on hooks meant for smaller aquatic species.
The solution? Mend the problematic divide between fisheries and environment agencies—and make these interactions global.
It’s impossible to protect aquatic species in the high seas controlled by one country when another country allows those same species to be harvested. By allowing globally partnered environmental agencies to enforce fisheries protections, the financial incentives for fishermen anywhere to keep and sell sharks will dwindle, and marine predators can gradually recover.
7. A Big Week for Big, Crumbling Glaciers
Three years ago, an immense iceberg split off Antarctica’s Larson’s C ice shelf. After drifting for all that time, the berg, at 1,500 square miles in area, was still larger than Rhode Island. Late last year, the berg came dangerously close to South Georgia Island. There, in one of earth’s most biologically rich places—and also one of the world’s largest Marine Protected Areas—the berg threatened to radically disrupt marine food chains:
An influx of cold fresh water could kill off microscopic marine organisms called phytoplankton, starving the krill that feed on them and depleting populations of fish, seals, penguins and whales.
Thankfully, warmer seas and ocean currents have shattered the berg into small pieces, each of which can drift in its own direction. Without the concentrated impacts of a near-stationary berg—or even a giant hunk of ice crushing the South Georgia shore—the ecosystems in that area are relatively unaffected.
The same can’t be said for people and ecosystems near the Rishi Ganga River in Northern India. There, in the Himalayan Valley, a glacier split off and shattered in the river, causing immense floods and avalanches that left at least 14 dead and more 150 people missing.
These disasters are chilling symptoms of humanity’s impact on the planet. By heating the atmosphere and disintegrating ecosystems that contribute to stability, we can expect more such disasters in years to come. And while climate change and ecological breakdown may at times seem slow and far-off, we should feel the same urgency with them as we feel with the rescue efforts in Northern India.
(Wall Street Journal article 1 & 2)
8. Scientist Who Warned of Holes in Ozone Layer and Popularized Term “Anthropocene” Dies at 87
There are so many beautiful things humankind is creating that I wonder when we will make Earth more beautiful again instead of depleting everything.
— Paul Crutzen
In 1995, in recognition of Crutzen’s work with two colleagues to demonstrate the hole in the Earth’s ozone layer, the Nobel Committee said the team had “contributed to our salvation from a global environmental problem”.
Seven years later, Crutzen saw the world entering a new epoch where humanity was the dominant force—for good or for ill—on the planet. He described the epoch as “The Anthropocene”, using geological parlance to recognize that our impacts are as visible deep underground as they are on the Earth’s surface.
Dr. Crutzen died on January 28th in Mainz, Germany at the age 87. It would have been a different—and likely much worse—world without him.
9. For the U.K., Hedgerows Are Crucial Reservoirs of Biodiversity—And Also Crucial for Net Zero by 2050
And finally, let’s end last week’s news with a solution: hedgerows!
Those leafy edges to manicured farmland can harbor a surprising number of species. After counting the species he found hedgerows for one year (which he did, by the way, on a dare), ecologist Rob Wolton found a whopping 2,000 species.
This one survey captures only the tiniest slice of the 500,000 km of hedgerows in the U.K., all of which serve as crucial “reservoirs of life” beside human-managed landscapes.
Hedgerows, of course, are not exclusive to the UK. All around the world, farmland and built environments are bordered by wild ecosystems. And while many of the rarest, most specialized species can’t make do with these liminal refuges, the diversity of species that can are worth more than our appreciation. These ecosystems help wildlife travel between populations, carrying crucial genetic diversity with them. They also control floods, prevent nutrient loss and erosion, and, thanks to hedgerow plants’ deep roots, capture carbon from the atmosphere.
For that last reason, a 2019 report from the UK’s Committee on Climate Change suggested a surprisingly simple solution: extend the UK’s hedgerow by 40%, and a decent chunk of the 2050 net zero target will be taken care of.
Science
Your finger on the pulse of research from ecology, evolutionary biology, conservation, economics, and other fields where biodiversity counts.
Starting this week, Speciose Science, coming out each Wednesday, will be the new home for weekly science updates. So, in other words, just sit tight and this newsletter will see you again on Wednesday!
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Thank you all, as always, for your support🙏🏼
Media That Matters
Video Presentation of the Dasgupta
And here’s the full report—all open access—from the U.K. Government.
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With gratitude,
—Nick