Biodiversity, or biological diversity, is the original form of the existence of living things and living nature. Biodiversity is the natural capital of our Earth.
Biodiversity is the knowledge gained over evolution over millions of years that allows for extreme changes in environmental conditions. Biodiversity is essential to human well-being as it provides services that sustain our economies and societies.
Today, there are 36 areas on Earth that are the most important areas for biodiversity. These biodiversity "hotspots", are the most biologically rich ecoregions on Earth.
Polynesia, the southern mountains of China, the coastal forest of Tanzania, New Zealand are all breathtakingly beautiful places, which are especially important for humanity as well.
According to scientist and naturalists, today, there are 36 areas on our Earth that are giving habitat to the world’s greatest diversity of plants and animals.
Russell Mittermeier, Cristine Mittermeier, and Norman Myers pioneered the mapping of “hotspots,” showcasing a variety of ecosystems and threats.
Together, the world’s 36 biodiversity hotspots make up at least 50% of the world’s total plant species and 42% of the world’s terrestrial vertebrates. 142 countries belong to these emphasized biodiversity sites. These emphasized areas cover about 391 ecoregions and cover 422 cities. Originally, 25 biological hotspots covered 11.8% of the earth’s surface. However, since the addition of an additional 11 areas, the area of land covered has increased to 15.7%.
The 10 most endangered areas today are the Cerrado area of Brazil, the Himalayan region, Polynesia-Micronesia, the Atlantic coast of South America, the Indo-Burmese region, the Philippines, the pine-oak forests of Madras, and the “Cape Floral” of California and the "region and the territory of Central America (Mesoamerica).
The 36 most important biodiversity hotspots on Earth
Source: Russell Mittermeier, Cristine Mittermeier és Norman Myers - The Biodiversity Hotspots
Listen to David Attenborough: An eyewitness testimony and vision of the future of the Earth
"Something is happening!" This is how Attenborough begins his argument in his book and popular Netflix documentary. The accelerating loss of biodiversity, after all, in the long run, our planet can only function effectively and healthily if billions of living things take advantage of the myriad resources and livelihoods. If millions of species live intertwined and supportive, sustainable lives, that is, the wider the biodiversity is, the greater the security; it applies for humans as well.
In the more than 4 billion-year history of life on Earth, there have been five mass extinctions so far, but then the process of life has always resumed. Finally, 11,600 years ago, with the retreat of the last glaciers, the climate stabilized and a new era of earth history, the present Holocene era. The Holocene, the least changeable period in the history of our planet, has not declined or increased by more than 3 degrees Celsius for ten thousand years. This extraordinary stability has made it possible to create a outstandingly rich resource for wild life like never before.
The Holocene era was the Garden of Eden for mankind.
The first civilizations were born. The hunter-gatherer lifestyle was replaced by a permanent settlement, the agricultural revolution took place and the first cities were born. At the meeting point of Africa, Asia and Europe, the fauna and flora of all three continents have been mixed for millions of years. At eleven points on our planet, agriculture developed in parallel but, independently of each other. Agriculture also brought with it the industrial revolution of the era. Barter trade began, people set out to conquer new lands from overcrowded valleys, while nature remained constant and provided all the conditions we needed.
We first saw our planet, thanks to the Apollo 8 spacecraft on December 20, 1968. Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders were the first to see our planet at the same time. "Wonderful!" was the term they used for our Earth.
Anders was the first man to take a photograph of the Earth as a planet.
The Blue Planet
Source: Shutterstock
Source: Shutterstock
And humanity has begun to understand something about the fact that our planet is small and vulnerable, a unique and irreplaceable treasure. As Anders put it:
We have come a long way to explore the Moon, but the most important result is that we have discovered the Earth.
The habitats of our Earth
The most powerful contiguous habitat is the world ocean, it covers 70 percent of the surface of our earth. What isalso visible from the Earth's aerial view are the contiguous green areas like the the rainforests, the deserts marked in yellow, and the contiguous green stripes. Action is needed to preserve the sustainability of our planet.
Nature strives for balance, but it is humanity that tilts it out of equilibrium.
The next three maps show the area of the oceans and land, where the contiguous forests are located, and the third map, which dynamically shows the gross biological emissions of our planet, that is, how our Earth breathes between January and December.
Our Earth's Habitats - 70 percent of our earth is covered by oceans
Source: visualcapitalist
The contiguous forest areas of our earth
Source: Global Forest Watch, 2020.
The change in the gross biological emissions of our planet between January and December
Source: Worldmapper
The activities of humanity affect the whole of the Earth as humanity transforms nature.
Every year, we catch 80 million tons of fish and other edible animals from the oceans, and reduce the stock of 30 percent of fish species below critical levels. Nearly half of the shallow seas’ coral fields began to whiten. Currently, an indestructible island of garbage, a contiguous garbage island of about 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic, is drifting in the area of the North Pacific where currents circulate surface waters. The waters of many rivers and their surroundings are now among the most polluted areas in the world. In addition, in many cases we take their water to irrigate the farmland with. We currently cut out 15 billion trees a year. The area of the rainforest has shrunk in half, and the reason we cut down this plethora of trees is because of beef production. The number of insects is declining by a quarter worldwide in 30 years.
Our Earth in 2011 was already on average 0.8 ° C warmer than in the 1950s and the rate of warming was higher than any other process that took place in the last 1,000 years. Today, temperatures have risen by an extra 1.8 ° C in some places, and Arctic summers will be longer and longer, even though our planets need ice.
According to the latest scientific data, living nature is on the verge of collapse and four of the nine critical limits have already been exceeded.
By emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, we heat our planet at a rapid pace, polluting the soil and waters with fertilizer. We are reducing biodiversity at a rate 100 times faster than average. We are transforming natural habitats into production areas at a tremendous rate.
Ha nem változtatunk az életformánkon és szemléletünkön, akkor a következő nemzedékei fogják megtapasztalni a következményeket. A bolygónk stabilitása akkor billen meg, ha csökkenni kezd a biodiverzitást. Ezért is fontos, hogy a világot vissza kell "vadítanunk" a természetes állapotába. Átbillenési pontok bőségesen akadnak az ökológiai rendszerekben. A katasztrófát csak akkor kerülhetjük el, ha odafigyelünk minden apró fontos jelre
How is it possible??
- We need a sustainable way of life;
- We need to develop a new form of sustainability;
- The humans of today’s age must once again find harmony with nature;
- Only in this way can biodiversity start to grow again.
We have the right compass on the road to a sustainable future! These are reductions in greenhouse gases, we need to reverse radical climate change, and we need to put an end to fertilizer overuse. The process of cutting huge areas out of nature must be stopped, the protection of the ozone layer, the reduction of ocean acidification and the reduction of soil and air pollution must continue to be important.
If all of this is resolved, biodiversity loss will reduce, stop, and begin to recover and flourish. The global components of our planet’s model of tolerance are the well-being of humanity, safe housing, health care, clean water, healthy food, access to energy, good education, setting an ecological ceiling, thus we will have a safe and sustainable future for all. Just like the Chinese ecological civilization formulated it 5,000 years ago.
We need green growth, renewable energies, green financial solutions, and a sustainable way of thinking. Sustainable revolutions began from Iceland to Paraguay to Rwanda and other myriads of places in the world. This is especially important at the 36 biodiversity boiling points.
We need to create a new, sustainable era, SOS (Spirit of Sustainability)!
The author is the chairman of the board of trustees of the Pallas Athene Domus Meriti Foundation (PADME).
