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No one wants to say, ‘Put down that burger’, but we really should
The basic problem is that we are destroying and degrading the habitats of other species to grow food for our own.
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The basic problem is that we have converted half of the earth’s habitable land into agricultural land.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Michael Grunwald
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Earth is in the midst of the worst mass extinction since an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago – and this time, the asteroid is us. Human beings are displacing the planet’s other species at an unprecedented rate, a disaster that the landmark UN Biodiversity Conference known as COP15 is focused on this week in Montreal. We are a unique menace, but we at least have a unique ability to recognise it and do something about it.
The first step towards recovery, of course, is admitting your problem, and the conference’s draft plan warns upfront that a million species will face extinction if we do not clean up our act. But while the delegates in Montreal are pointing fingers at everything from plastics to pesticides to invasive species, biodiversity loss is not that complicated a mystery.
