‘Ecological Ponzi scheme’ threatens to bring down humanity, scientists warn

LONDON, (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Accelerating biodiversity loss, climate change and over-consumption are swiftly pushing human societies toward a “ghastly future” of growing hunger, political division and societal breakdown, leading scientists said on Wednesday.Despite years of warnings, the threats are underestimated and not broadly understood, and efforts to head them off are hamstrung because many governments are captured by wealthy elites protecting their own short-term interests, they added.

“The scale of the threats to the biosphere and its life forms - including humanity - is so great that it is difficult to grasp even for well-informed experts,” the 17 scientists wrote in an article in the journal Frontiers in Conservation Science.

The dangers include agricultural collapses that could create widespread hunger, large-scale forced migration as people flee uninhabitable conditions and a rise in right-wing populist governments that make addressing the threats harder, they said.

“COVID and the rise of nationalistic leaders show us our perceived security is much more tenuous than we thought,” said co-author Daniel Blumstein, a biologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. Despite efforts to spur action to protect the climate and biodiversity, “we see all of these indicators going in the wrong direction”, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The journal article cites more than 150 scientific papers detailing the perils, but notes these have gained little traction, particularly in a global economy built around unsustainable pillars of perpetual growth and shortterm gain.