World Focus

Health check turns spotlight on ailing planet

Humans taking far more from nature than can be replaced; economies driving destruction: Studies

A forest deliberately set ablaze last August by the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources to combat illegal logging in Apui, in the southern region of Amazonas state.
A forest deliberately set ablaze last August by the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources to combat illegal logging in Apui, in the southern region of Amazonas state. PHOTO: REUTERS
Plastic waste piles up on a beach to the north of Bima city on Indonesia's Sumbawa Island. The country is one of the world's top sources of marine plastic waste, leading to clogged-up rivers, coastlines and coral reefs.
A scuba diver checks coral reefs in the Red Sea. Coral bleaching, a deadly disease that strikes reefs when oceans heat up, has risen nearly fivefold since the 1980s. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Deforestation and animal trade are among the reasons that the number of orangutans, listed as a critically endangered species, has plunged in recent decades. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Olive Ridley sea turtle hatchlings making their way to the sea on Mumbai's Versova beach last Thursday. They hatched in India's financial capital for the first time in two decades after a major clean-up of the beach.
Fishing is second only to rice cultivation as a source of livelihood for Cambodians along the Mekong River and Tonle Sap Lake, supporting the lives of whole communities. PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Plastic waste piles up on a beach to the north of Bima city on Indonesia’s Sumbawa Island. The country is one of the world’s top sources of marine plastic waste, leading to clogged-up rivers, coastlines and coral reefs. ST PHOTO: DAVID FOGARTY
Left: A scuba diver checks coral reefs in the Red Sea. Coral bleaching, a deadly disease that strikes reefs when oceans heat up, has risen nearly fivefold since the 1980s. Above: Deforestation and animal trade are among the reasons that the number of
Olive Ridley sea turtle hatchlings making their way to the sea on Mumbai’s Versova beach last Thursday. They hatched in India’s financial capital for the first time in two decades after a major clean-up of the beach. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
David Fogarty
Climate Change Editor
Updated
Apr 02, 2018, 11:44 AM
Published
Mar 27, 2018, 05:00 AM
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The reports emphasise that nature provides humans with food, clean water, energy, and regulates earth's climate - just about everything we need to survive and thrive. Scientists refer to these benefits as ecosystem services. And the problem is that many people take them for granted because they are assumed to be free. They are not and their value can be calculated.

For the Americas, the IPBES authors estimated that the value of nature to people - such as crops, wood, water purification or tourism - was at least US$24.3 trillion (S$32 trillion) a year, equivalent to the region's gross domestic product (GDP) from Alaska to Argentina.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on March 27, 2018, with the headline Health check turns spotlight on ailing planet. Subscribe

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