Lynn’s Review
This month, Science at Fishbourne, welcomed back Dr Tony Whitbred, President, and formerly Chief Executive of the Sussex Wildlife Trust. Last year he spoke to us on “Climate Change.” This year he introduced his presentation: “There is No Wealth but Life,” as a philosophical discussion on: “Where we are now,” and “Where we might go from here.” I can do no better than to introduce my review with Tony’s own summary:
“The world today is fixated on economic growth. It is understandable that we all want to increase our prosperity but do our measures for what we might call progress actually work? Our general measure of economic growth is GDP, but this measures all economic activity, whether positive or negative, no matter what it delivers. The environment, on the other hand, is often considered a cost (even a burden) to the economy, and the benefits it delivers are rarely accounted for. With such a skewed comparison, perhaps it is not surprising that the environment is constantly degraded as the economy expands. Surely it can’t be right to consider the very basis of our life on earth as an economic cost that we are unprepared to pay! Are there other ways of looking at measures of prosperity?“
Where We Are Now
Tony walked us through life on Earth, highlighting human impact on the environment; on habitats and the decline of species taken from records in Nature Reserves since 1970:
A 70% decline in the 30,000 populations of vertebrates around the world
A 75% decline of invertebrates (from German records)
Habitat change in the last twenty years has led to a frightening 98% decline in the Turtle Dove population alone, and 75% of Fisheries are now overfished or unsustainable; the Newfoundland cod industry, disappeared!
Extinctions
Extinctions are a normal part of evolution, and there is a recognised background rate to the timing and frequency of extinctions. Mass Extinctions refer to events happening within less than two million years, with at least 75% of a species going extinct.
There have been five mass extinctions in the last 500 million years:
444 million years ago 86% species loss through glacial and inter-glacial periods
360 million years ago 75% species loss from rapid and severe global cooling
250 million years ago 96% species loss from effects of intense volcanic activity
200 million years ago 80% species loss from effects of underwater volcanic activity
65 million years ago 76% species loss from Asteroid impact
(See the link below for more detail)
We are now in the 6th mass extinction and the cause, it appears, is us!
Resources Depleted
We, in the Western world are living in such a way, that we exploit too much of Earth’s resources and give back such gasses and chemicals that negatively impact nature and impact existence.
If everyone lived as we do in the UK, we would need three and a half planets to sustain us, and if everyone lived as people in the USA do, we would need between five and seven planets.
Since 1992, we have used as many resources as we did in the entire history of humanity! Maybe we have used half of the earth’s resources. It took 300,000 years to get to this point.
With the rate of growth doubling every 23 years, in just 23 years, Earth’s resources will have been depleted.
Sweden’s studies show that we are outside the safe zone on: pollutants; land use change, and climate change.
Our approach to life is based on economic activity: Take, make, waste; or take, make, use, lose.
Economy
The current world view is that productivity, is positive for the economy and conserving nature is negative; of no financial value, but: “You can’t have an economy without an environment!”
There have been many studies and words spoken, about caring for the environment and sometime in 2007 the UK began a National Ecosystem Assessment, probably at great cost. Lots was discovered, but little action taken. Here are some of the outcomes of the assessment: (I also include a link to it below).
What has the UK NEA achieved?
“The UK NEA, through its reports, website and key messages, has built on previous studies such as the Countryside Survey of 2007 by:
- creating a compelling and easily understood explanation of the state and value of the UK’s natural environment and ecosystem services;
- providing a unique synthesis of what is currently known, by collating existing information on ecosystems and ecosystem services and exploring the interlinkages between habitats, ecosystem services and biodiversity;
- placing ecosystem services in the spotlight and focusing attention on how our natural ecosystems support their provision;
- identifying knowledge gaps for habitats and ecosystem services that will inform future research; and
- assisting in further embedding the concepts of ecosystem services and the ecosystem approach and strengthening decision-making at all scales from landowners to local government and companies to national administrations.”
I also took this extract from DEFRA’s 2010 publication: “What Nature Can Do For You.”
“There is evidence we just can’t afford to ignore: The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) is a major international study that is revealing the enormous economic value of the services our ecosystems provide and the very real social and economic costs of their degradation and loss. TEEB estimates that, globally, the degradation of our planet’s ecosystems is costing us €50 billion each year.”
Nature’s intrinsic value shouldn’t need justifying. Economics isn’t giving value to that which is important; is vital; that which is essential for life on our planet. However, the National Ecosystem Assessment worked out that the value of benefits given by wetlands is £1200 per hectare per year.
What Could The Future Bring? What Does It Mean To Invest In Nature’s Capital?
To me, it goes without saying that we are a part of nature, but Tony’s talk, really brought home the need to fight for nature, and so it is necessary to talk of: “Investing in Nature,” and highlighting the benefits:
Wetlands
There are benefits to giving nature a chance to heal itself, and it can restore quickly:
- Allow natural flooding on flood plains
- Promote seasonal wash-lands; natural flooding
- Restore meanders in rivers
Bringing in natural helpers, costs very little. Beavers, were introduced in Devon in 2011. They created 13 ponds, holding back 650,000 litres of water and 20 tons of sediment.
Re-Wilding
Natural re-wilding would reduce pests; conserve genetic species and cycle nutrients more effectively. Many such measures are quantifiable, but generally ignored.
Woodlands
In 2020, the Office for National Statistics gave a value of £7 billion to woodland timber, but no value was given for woodlands role in : carbon sequestration; flood prevention; pollution removal; woodland fuel; noise prevention; recreation; maintaining all aspects of physical, emotional, natural life for all living things!
In 2021, Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta (a top economist) was contracted by the Treasury to write a report on “The Economics of Biodiversity.” Here I list some of the headline messages from that review:
Our economies, livelihoods and well-being all depend on our most precious asset: Nature.
We have collectively failed to engage with Nature sustainably, to the extent that our demands far exceed its capacity to supply us with the goods and services we all rely on.
Our unsustainable engagement with Nature is endangering the prosperity of current and future generations.
At the heart of the problem lies deep-rooted, widespread institutional failure.
The solution starts with understanding and accepting a simple truth: our economies are embedded within Nature, not external to it.
Transformative change is possible – we and our descendants deserve nothing less.
On leaving the European Union, Our country didn’t take the opportunity to improve our position with regards to nature, but Tony believes that we are now in a period of change, and he is excited for future possibilities. He spoke of the Knepp Castle Estate’s, rewilding project. It was once intensively farmed, but since 2001 has been devoted to a pioneering rewilding project. Knepp’s ethos is to enable natural processes instead of aiming for any particular goals or outcomes.
I hope that I’ve managed to capture most points from Tony’s presentation. I have placed links below to some of the things mentioned, and to the BBC Sounds series: “39 Ways to Save the Planet.”
P.S A good sign of change. When I rode my bicycle today, I was thrilled to collide with so many flying insects. That hasn’t happened where I live for years. The roadside verges are teeming with insects of all kinds, despite the fluctuating weather conditions.