At the United Nations' climate change conference this month, experts painted a grim picture for the future of our planet. If humans don't act within the next 5 to 10 years, they warned, not only will we cause the extinction of many of the world's vital species, but in the end, we will be wiped off the earth ourselves.
"The entire web of life is on the verge of catastrophe," said Dr. Stuart Pimm from the Earth Institute at Columbia University. "If things continue, in as little as 35 years half of all species of life will be extinct." Perhaps the scariest aspect of this prediction is that nobody knows what the consequences will be. "Billions of people could die because of decreased biodiversity," Pimm warned.
As much as humans may try to keep a distance from nature, our impact on the natural world can't be denied. "The last mass extinction event was caused by an asteroid," Pimm recalled. "Now it is being caused by homo sapiens."
But while global warming is clearly a major factor in the extinction crisis - a temperature increase of just 1.5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius would put 20-30 percent of plants and animals at risk of extinction - it's not the biggest. Habitat destruction and pollution play large roles as well. Oddly enough, the species that live in the places least touched by humans are the ones who suffer the most. This includes species that occupy the Artic region and mountaintops - they have nowhere to escape - and lowland species, which have been isolated by the agricultural land.
There is no doubt that the impact of extinction is already being felt. According to Pimm and fellow speaker Chera Van Berg, two-thirds of the planet's grazing land has already been overgrazed. Add forests that are shrinking at a rate of one and a half million square kilometers each decade - meaning that within a few decades we may completely destroy the world's forests along with the diverse ecosystems that occupy them - and severely overharvested ocean fisheries, the tremendous scale of crisis is coming into focus.
How will all of this affect us? Mass extinction will have major implications for global food security. As food prices rise, the poorest countries will be the ones to suffer the most. Maize, wheat, and rice crops have already shown evidence of decreased productivity, and the threat of water scarcity will become more common. The world's species will become more homogenized as the species that thrive on humans, such as pigeons and cockroaches, expand. Add these factors to the closely linked and devastating implications of global warming, and it becomes clear that we are heading in a tragically wrong direction.
What can we do to change the course of mass extinction? The experts say that raising consciousness about this largely unknown issue can have an enormous impact. "By sharing what we know and do on a personal basis, we are starting the process of cultural evolution," says Van Berg, one of the producers of the environmental film, Call of Life: Facing the Mass Extinction. "Ways of thinking have to change on a world level."
We can also stop - or at least limit - our consumption of meat. According to Pimm, this is the largest driver of the environmental crisis, as the Amazon is being destroyed in order to feed cows for commercial beef. Furthermore, we can choose to eat sustainable fish and make better consumer choices, such as purchasing energy efficient light bulbs.
Another lesser-known, yet surprisingly inexpensive option we have is to become carbon neutral, which entails paying to grow enough trees to ensure that our carbon emissions are being balanced out - at a cost of about $200 a year. Finally, we can express our concern for environmental and biodiversity issues to local politicians.
"When the time is right, society can change," says Pimm. "We are either going to wake up or die - we don't know which it will be."
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