Living Planet Report 2018, Aiming Higher – Summary
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REPORT INT 2018 Living Planet Report 2018 Aiming higher - Summary Institute of Zoology (Zoological Society of London) Founded in 1826, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is an A NEW GLOBAL DEAL FOR NATURE international scientific, conservation and educational organization. Its mission is to achieve and promote the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. ZSL runs ZSL London Zoo and ZSL Whipsnade Zoo; AND PEOPLE URGENTLY NEEDED carries out scientific research in the Institute of Zoology; and is actively involved in field conservation worldwide. ZSL manages the Living Planet ® Index in a collaborative partnership with WWF. Few people have the chance to find themselves on the cusp of a truly WWF historic transformation. I passionately believe that this is where we WWF is one of the world’s largest and most experienced independent stand today. conservation organizations, with over 5 million supporters and a global network active in more than 100 countries. WWF’s mission is to stop On one hand, we have known for many years that we are driving the the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a planet to the brink. The astonishing decline in wildlife populations future in which humans live in harmony with nature, by conserving the shown by the latest Living Planet Index – a 60% fall in just over world’s biological diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable natural 40 years – is a grim reminder and perhaps the ultimate indicator resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of pollution and of the pressure we exert on the planet. wasteful consumption. On the other hand, science has never been clearer about the consequences of our impact. © WWF Marco Lambertini, The nature conservation agenda is not only about securing the Director General future of tigers, pandas, whales and all the amazing diversity of life WWF International we love and cherish on Earth. It’s bigger than that. There cannot be a healthy, happy and prosperous future for people on a planet with a destabilized climate, depleted oceans and rivers, degraded land and empty forests, all stripped of biodiversity, the web of life that sustains us all. In the next years, we need to urgently transition to a net carbon- Citation neutral society and halt and reverse nature loss – through green WWF. 2018. Living Planet Report - 2018: Aiming Higher. finance, clean energy and environmentally friendly food production. Grooten, M. and Almond, R.E.A.(Eds). WWF, Gland, Switzerland. We must also preserve and restore enough land and ocean in a natural state. Design and infographics by: peer&dedigitalesupermarkt Few people have the chance to be a part of truly historic transformations. This is ours. Cover photograph: © Global Warming Images / WWF Children dive into the sea at sunset, Funafuti, Tuvalu We have before us an unparalleled yet rapidly closing opportunity as we head into the year 2020, when the world will review its progress on sustainable development by means of the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity. And this is when the world should embrace a Living Planet Report® new global deal for nature and people and truly demonstrate the and Living Planet Index® path we are choosing for people and the planet. are registered trademarks of WWF International. The choice is ours. WWF Living Planet Report 2018 page 2 Summary page 3 Everything that has built modern human society, with its benefits SETTING THE SCENE and luxuries, is provided by nature and we will continue to need these natural resources to survive and thrive. Increasingly, research demonstrates nature’s incalculable importance to our health, 1-3 We live in an age of rapid and unprecedented planetary change. wealth, food and security . What future benefits might we discover Indeed, many scientists believe our ever-increasing consumption, in the millions of species yet to be described, let alone studied? As and the resulting increased demand for energy, land and water, is we better understand our reliance on natural systems it’s clear that driving a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. It’s the first time nature is not just a ‘nice to have’. in the Earth’s history that a single species – Homo sapiens – has had such a powerful impact on the planet. All economic activity ultimately depends on services provided by nature, making it an immensely valuable component of a nation’s This rapid planetary change, referred to as the ‘Great Acceleration’, NATURE, UNDERPINNED wealth. It’s estimated that, globally, nature provides services worth around US$125 trillion a year 4. Governments, business and the has brought many benefits to human society. Yet we now also BY BIODIVERSITY, understand that there are multiple connections between the finance sector are starting to question how global environmental overall rise in our health, wealth, food and security, the unequal PROVIDES A WEALTH risks – such as increasing pressure on agricultural land, soil distribution of these benefits and the declining state of the Earth’s OF SERVICES, WHICH degradation, water stress and extreme weather events – will natural systems. Nature, underpinned by biodiversity, provides FORM THE BUILDING affect the macroeconomic performance of countries, sectors and a wealth of services, which form the building blocks of modern BLOCKS OF MODERN financial markets. society; but both nature and biodiversity are disappearing at an SOCIETY; BUT alarming rate. Despite well-meaning attempts to stop this loss BOTH NATURE AND Figure 1: The through global agreements such as the Convention on Biological importance of nature Diversity, we are failing; current targets and consequent actions BIODIVERSITY ARE to people amount, at best, to a managed decline. To achieve climate and Nature provides us with DISAPPEARING AT AN vital goods and services. sustainable development commitments, reversing the loss of nature ALARMING RATE Adapted from Van and biodiversity is critical. Oorschot et al., 2016 5. Since 1998 the Living Planet Report, a science-based assessment of the health of our planet, has been tracking the state of global NATURE IS HOME TO NATURE AS SOURCE NATURE PROVIDES NATURE INSPIRES US biodiversity. In this landmark anniversary edition, 20 years after BIODIVERSITY FOR FOOD, SHELTER CLEAN WATER, AIR AND its original publication, the Living Planet Report 2018 provides AND MEDICINES HEALTHY SOILS a platform for the best science, cutting-edge research and diverse voices on the impact of humans on the health of our Earth. More than 50 experts from academia, policy, international development and conservation organizations have contributed to this edition. This growing collective voice is crucial if we are to reverse the trend of biodiversity loss. The extinction of a multitude of species on Earth seems not to have captured the imagination, or attention, of the world’s leaders enough to catalyse the change necessary. Together, we are advocating the need for a new global deal for nature and people that addresses the crucial questions of how to feed a growing global population, limit warming to 1.5°C, and restore nature. WWF Living Planet Report 2018 page 4 Summary page 5 THE GREAT ACCELERATION We are living through the Great Acceleration – a unique event in the 4.5 billion-year Figure 2: The Great Acceleration The increasing rates of change in human activity since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The 1950s marks history of our planet – with exploding human population and economic growth driving an explosion in growth. After this time, human activities (left panels) begin to interfere significantly with Earth’s unprecedented planetary change through the increased demand for energy, land and water life support system (right panels) (these graphs are from Steffen et al., 2015 7 and all the references to the datasets (figure 2) 6,7. This is so great that many scientists believe we are entering a new geological behind them are in the original paper). epoch, the Anthropocene 8,9. Some of these changes have been positive, some negative, and all of them are interconnected. What is increasingly clear is that human development and wellbeing are reliant on healthy natural systems, and we cannot continue to enjoy the former without the latter. SOCIO-ECONOMIC TRENDS EARTH SYSTEM TRENDS WORLD POPULATION REAL GDP FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT CARBON DIOXIDE (CO2) NITROUS OXIDE METHANE 8 70 2,5 390 330 1800 7 60 320 2 1600 6 50 360 310 1400 5 40 1,5 300 4 330 1200 30 290 illion 3 1 1000 2 20 300 280 trillion S ollar trillion S ollar 0,5 800 1 10 270 thmopheric conc, pp pp thmopheric conc, athmopheric conc, ppm 0 0 0 270 260 600 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 URBAN POPULATION PRIMARY ENERGY USE FERTILIZER CONSUMPTION STRATOSPHERIC OZONE SURFACE TEMPERATURE OCEAN ACIDIFICATION 4 600 200 100 0,6 8,4 180 1 8,2 500 160 80 0,4 8 3 400 140 0,2 7,8 120 60 7,6 2 300 100 0 7,4 lo illion 80 40 7,2 200 60 -0,2 7 eaoule 1 million tonne 100 40 20 -0,4 6,8 20 hyrogen ion nmol g 6,6 temperature anomaly 0 0 0 0 -0,6 6,4 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 LARGE DAMS GLOBAL WATER USE PAPER PRODUCTION MARINE FISH CAPTURE SHRIMP AQUACULTURE NITROGEN TO COASTAL ZONE 35 4,5 450 80 4 100 90 30 4 400 70 3,5 3,5 350