We walking apes care fiercely for our own - but only within the most limited moral horizons, family, clan, country.
Human beings are oddly selfish creatures. 70% since 1970 - gone.Įven if we accept that Extinction is real, why should it matter to us? It’s a tough case to make to the walking ape. We are altering the balance of life on this planet, carefully struck over eons, in an eyeblink. It’s undeniable now, really, that what many scientists, from ecologists to zoologists have been warning of for a few decades now, is true: we’re in the middle of a mass extinction - and there were only five previous ones in deep time, going back billions of years. This is now without a shadow of a doubt one of the issues not just of our age, nor even of human history, but of deep history.
What this research should say is that the time for denial, minimization, and ignorance is over. Our media barely covers it, our pop culture is busy obsessed with superheroes and Instacelebs, and who has time to care about the animals? Hence, who cares? And yet what could possibly be a more serious issue than life on planet earth under existential threat? Because, well, as I’m about to explain, it includes us, too. A political plaything, if even that - a pawn to placed on the board of her less than stellar achievements, like blowing up the British pound and tanking the nation’s banking system. You can bet that he’s gravely concerned about Extinction - and yet for a figure like Truss, it’s a game. We can debate the politics of it, but let’s recognize him for what he’s achieved, which is putting conservation on the map globally, making it his life’s great passion. And you might not know it, but King Charles is one of the world’s great conservationists. That’s the Royal Equivalent of the ice-cold shoulder. And instead of a warm, enthusiastic, shoulder clapping reception, what did she get? “Back again? Dear, Oh dear. The new British Prime Minister, Liz Truss, went to meet the new King, King Charles. To illustrate, you might have heard of another story from recently - this time, a funny one. Because for them, I guess, thinking in a crude, unsophisticated manner, their thought process goes something like this: “Some animals are dying off! LOL, what’s the… big deal?!” And yet that’s the way that, largely, our societies and governments treat it. It’s not a joke, it’s not a drill, and what it most certainly isn’t is a game. I don’t think it’s remotely an overstatement to say that the latest research shows that the state of life on planet earth is under profound threat. If 70% of anything had suddenly disappeared in 50 years - us, humans, a specific ethnicity, a country - we would say it was dying off. What’s the state of life on planet earth? It’s dying. Sound pretty dire? Now let me put it my way. We are hurtling towards a hotter planet where nature - and with it, our food, our homes and livelihoods - will be unable to survive without urgent action now to save our climate.” “Across the world, and in the UK, nature is on its knees and our leaders are risking catastrophic consequences for people, planet and our economy by failing to act. “The staggering rate of decline is a severe warning that the rich biodiversity that sustains all life on our planet is in crisis, putting every species at risk - including us.” What’s the state of life on planet earth? Let me put it their way first, and then I’ll put it mine. They construct what they call a “ Living Planet Index,” to track, well, the state of life on planet earth. It’s done by the World Wildlife Federation and the Zoological Society of London, perhaps the world’s foremost authorities in their fields. This comes from a bi-annual study - the most authoritative one of its kind. It says that animal populations have fallen by 70% since 1970. I won’t use the word startling often - but a report came out today which is just that. What does that mean? Well, a lot of things. I often say that we’re living through the Age of Extinction.
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