Making the world livable
We share Earth with the living world — themost remarkable life-support system imaginable, constructed over billions of years. The planet’s stability has wavered just as its biodiversity has declined — the two things are bound together. To restore stability to our planet, therefore, we must restore its biodiversity, the very thing we have removed. It is the only way out of this crisis that we ourselves created. We must rewild the world.
— David Attenborough
Last Wednesday I received David Attenborough’s “A Life on our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision of the Future” (Grand Central Publishing, 2020). Attenborough is Britain’s best-known natural history filmmaker with a career spanning seventy years. He joined the BBC in 1952 and has made many renowned TV documentaries. He was knighted in 1958 and received the Order ofmerit in 2005.
The book is divided into segments of Attenborough’s life when the Earth’s ecosystem made dramatic changes, such as global population, temperature, green house gases, and decrease in forestation. In 1937 the population was 203 billion, carbon in the atmosphere 280 parts per million, and 66% of wilderness remained. By 1954, there were
2.7 billion humans, 310 parts per million of carbon, and
64% wilderness. 1978: 434 billion, 335 parts per million,
55% wilderness.
In 1989 population had climbed to 5.1 billion, carbon to 353 parts per million and 49% of the wilderness remained. By 1997, 5.9 billion. 360 parts per millions, 46% wilderness. In 2011 there were 7 billion of us, 391 parts permillion of carbon and only 39% wilderness. During that time many species had vanished completely. Ecosystems were in disarray while many people are impoverished and starving.
What has been called the Sixth Extinction is now ongoing. Ivana Kottasová, CNN writes, “Humans have already wiped out hundreds of species and pushed many more to the brink of extinction through wildlife trade, pollution, habitat loss and the use of toxic substances. But the findings published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) show that the rate at which species are dying out has accelerated in recent decades.” Attenborough is deeply concerned about the world in the next ninety years if things continue as they are. There is evidence that if nothing is done the world could “tip and collapse.” But he provides hope. He describes the atomic disaster at Chernobyl nuclear power station in the Soviet Union in 1986, the worst disaster in nuclear power generation history. He shows that nature, when given time can reverse the environmental problems and reverse stress on flora and fauna.
He goes on to propose several doable, rational remedies to correct our global problems and provide a sustainable world. Before the Holocene, or current era, before agriculture, the few humans that lived hunted and gathered the things they needed. Now farming takes too much land even with the great increase in population. For a sustainable lifestyle we must increase yield per acre. Eating less meat is appropriate. Moving crops closer to population centers through vertical farming and hydroponics will be a major improvement. Reducing food waste and improved distribution are critical.
Stabilizing population is as important. We must equalize the number of people to the available food supply. All forms of birth control must be available to those who need it. Clean energy is essential. We must rid the environment of the poisonous effects of green house gas emission. We must clean up the seas of excess warmth, debris of which plastic is a major contributor. This will revitalize the fishing industry. Reforestation is also crucial. Reducing excess lumbering and restocking the land with wildlife will bring us back in balance. We must find the will, leadership and resources to make the world livable.