More than one in ten wild tree species is threatened by unsustainable logging
One in five people around the world rely on wild animals, plants and fungi for food and livelihoods, according to a landmark assessment.
But many wild species are not being harvested sustainably, putting food security at risk, the report found.
In 2019, experts estimated that one million plants and animals could go extinct in coming decades.
And much of this is being driven by unsustainable fishing, hunting and logging.
Now a new report by the same influential body concludes that the sustainable use of wild species is critical for people and nature.
And climate change and increased demand is likely to push more species to the brink, putting food security at risk.
IMAGE SOURCE,WILD POETS SOCIETY
Image caption,
Over-fishing threatens a third of marine fish species
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is conservation scientists’ equivalent of the IPCC group of climate scientists.
Their most recent assessment, approved by 139 countries in Bonn, Germany, focuses on how fishing, hunting and logging can be carried out more sustainably without damaging biodiversity and food security.
It found that billions of people across the world rely on 50,000 species of wild animals, plants and fungi for food, medicine, fuel, income and other purposes.
The assessment paints a picture of widespread exploitation of nature, with about a third of wild fish in the ocean overfished, more than 10% of wild trees threatened by unsustainable logging, and more than 1,300 mammals pushed to extinction by unsustainable hunting.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,
Forest being cleared for cattle ranching in Brazil
Actions that would help address these challenges include a crackdown on illegal fishing and wildlife trade; better management and certification of forests; and recognising the rights of indigenous people who look after land and forests, it said.
Dr Jean-Marc Fromentin, co-chair of the assessment for France, said rural people in developing countries were most at risk from unsustainable use, and had few alternatives, “often forcing them to further exploit wild species already at risk”.
The report found:
About 50,000 wild species are used for food, fuel, cosmetics, medicines, tourism and other purposes.
More sustainable use of wild species is critical for people and nature, with billions of people in every corner of the globe relying upon them.
The sustainability of wild species in the future is likely to be challenged by climate change, increased demand for such products, and technological advances in methods of hunting, logging and fishing.
Addressing these challenges will require “transformative changes”.
Commenting on the assessment, Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, said more sustainable use of animals and plants can provide a strong incentive for conservation and living in harmony with nature.
“Today one million species are at risk of extinction,” she said. “And the unsustainable, illegal and unregulated use of species is a large part of the problem. For example, the illegal wildlife trade is a 23 billion dollar annual business that lines the deep pockets of a few unscrupulous individuals. These people get rich at the expense of nature and ecosystems.”
The 2019 IPBES global assessment alerted the world that the direct exploitation of species is one of the main reasons that one million species of plants and animals now face extinction.
The new report will provide decision-makers with evidence for enhancing the sustainable use of wild species and will feed into negotiations in Montreal later this year on setting global targets to stem the loss of biodiversity.
Sustainable development will remain out-of-reach unless humanity changes the way it values nature, according to the UN’s science advisory panel for biodiversityJOHN WESSELS AFP/File
A major UN report warned Monday that a global economy focused on short-term profit is wrecking the planet and called for a drastically different approach as to how we value nature.
Without this shift, universally accepted goals of sustainable development and greater equity will remain out-of-reach, the science advisory panel for biodiversity, known as IPBES, found.
“The way we understand economic growth is at the core of the biodiversity crisis,” Unai Pascual, an ecological economist at the University of Bern and co-chair of a 139-nation meeting in Bonn that approved the report, told AFP.
“The new assessment aims to bring different types of values into the decisions leading us to transformative change.”
Some 80 experts combed through more than 13,000 studies, looking at how market-based values have contributed to the destruction of ecosystems that sustain us, and what other values might best foster sustainability.
A 34-page Summary for Policymakers, approved over the weekend, comes as the UN steers an international process to stem species loss and protect nature.
In December, nations gather to finalise a treaty tasked with halting the decline of biodiversity and setting humanity on a path to “live in harmony with nature” by mid-century.
“Nature is what sustains us all,” commented Inger Andersen, head of the UN Environment Programme. “It gives us food, medicine, raw materials, oxygen, climate regulation and much more.”
But a five-fold increase in per-capita GDP since 1950 has maimed the natural world that made such growth possible.
A million species — including, arguably, our own — are threatened with extinction and global warming is on track to make large swathes of the planet unlivable.
‘Not going to be easy’
Two landmark UN reports — one on climate change in 2018, another on biodiversity in 2019 — concluded that only a wholesale transformation of the way we produce, distribute and consume almost everything can stave off runaway global warming and a collapse of ecosystems.
That already Herculean task becomes nigh impossible, the IPBES report warns, unless humanity also changes the way it perceives and values nature.
More nuanced valuations of nature could lead to better policy choices, the IPBES authors concludeANDI AFP/File
“If you think of nature as a factory at your service, your emphasis will be on extracting the highest yields possible,” said Patricia Balvanera, an ecologist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and a co-chair of the report.
Many still fear that sustainability can only be achieved at the expense of well-being, when in fact a natural world that can regenerate itself is the bedrock for healthy societies in the future, scientists say.
More nuanced valuations of nature could lead to better policy choices, the IPBES authors conclude.
A narrow cost-benefit analysis of development projects such as the Grand Renaissance Dam along Ethiopia’s Blue Nile or the Mayan Train project on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula weighed the value of electricity, tourism or jobs against the cost of construction or displacing populations.
A “living from nature” perspective may even quantify the economic value of damage to ecosystems, such as a CO2 absorbing forest or wetlands, or the loss of insect populations that pollinate crops.
“If nature is part of me, part of my family, then — as in a family — the priority is to take care of each other,” said Balvanera. “It is a totally different mindset.”
Many of the delegates and scientists in IPBES — the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services — are also part of the 196-nation Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), which has struggled to find consensus on the draft treaty to be delivered in December.
Civil society will play a critical role in changing the way societies value nature, according to a major report from the UN science advisory panel for climate changeMORRIS MAC MATZEN AFP/File
“We think this values assessment can help the negotiations, politically speaking, to provide find a solution,” noted Pascual, who said several delegates called it a “game-changer”.
“Right now, there is a gloomy sense that this is not going to be easy at all.”
Ah yes, the right wings favorite tool, lie, misdirect, and misinform. Accuse, slander, make false claims, and attack anyone / anything that doesn’t walk the right wing line. Again notice the wording used to describe even just being gay or supporting equality. Hugs
Facebook and Instagram both allowed anti-LGBTQ sentiment and misinformation to proliferate despite claiming to support the LGBTQ community during Pride Month, according to a pair of Media Matters reports released this week. Both social media platforms are owned by Meta, which publicly promotes its platforms as safe spaces for LGBTQ users.
Facebook enabled right-wing media to amplify anti-LGBTQ lies during Pride month, according to Media Matters. The progressive media watchdog group found that during the month of June, right-leaning pages posted about LGBTQ and Pride nearly 3,500 times and earned just under four million interactions.
“Facebook and its parent company Meta had eagerly promoted Pride Month, adding Pride features on the platform, claiming to amplify LGBTQ creators, and reiterating the company’s supposed commitment to supporting LGBTQ people and to eliminating hate speech targeting them. But Facebook has regularly failed to remove the dangerous and dehumanizing hate speech and misinformation targeting LGBTQ people coming from right-wing outlets, figures, and groups. And this Pride Month, under Facebook’s watch, posts that amplify longstanding, baseless, and dangerous rhetoric about the LGBTQ community proliferated across the platform,” the report found.
Pages run by right-wing media outlets TheBlaze, The Western Journal, and The Daily Wire, which regularly exploit Facebook’s algorithm, spread lies and fearmongering posts about Pride events and LGBTQ people “grooming children.” Similar anti-LGBTQ posts about Pride were also found all over right-wing Facebook groups both public and private.
“During Pride Month, Meta announced it was ‘celebrating pride’ by launching Pride-themed stickers and avatars, a Global LGBTQ+ Cultural Guide, and an LGBTQ+ Safety Hub,” the report on Instagram reads. “Despite Meta’s newly announced resources, Instagram has allowed its users to spread propaganda against the LGBTQ community — and even against the same individuals it’s publicly celebrating. In several cases, these are accounts dedicated to targeting LGBTQ people, while in others, these are accounts of right-wing media outlets and personalities who also push anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. Many of these posts seem to violate Meta’s policies.”
Media Matters tracked a number of right-wing accounts on Instagram – including Libs of TikTok, which has become notorious on various social media platforms for posting anti-gay propaganda and encouraging followers to harass LGBTQ people – that have been allowed to post homophobic memes and disinformation to their hundreds of thousands of followers.
As Media Matters points out, the rise in anti-LGBTQ hate on social media has coincided with a wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation in state houses across the U.S. as well as Pride events being targeted by extremist groups this summer. “The false narratives right-wing figures are spinning to support these bills are being projected through online platforms and news outlets and have already led to real-world harm.”
“While some queer users are profitable for Instagram, especially during the month of June, its ongoing failure to address accounts actively spreading harmful rhetoric against the LGBTQ community make the platform’s ‘Happy Pride’ messaging hollow,” the report concludes. “Once again, Meta is showing that it will prioritize the engagement that these high-profile right-wing accounts generated through hateful, lie-filled content, even when it leads to real-world harm and the degradation of LGBTQ rights and safety.”
LGBTQ Nation reached out to Meta for comment and will update this article if they respond.
Texas has hurt itself with a closed electrical grid that they refuse to add to the national grid. If they did that they would have to follow federal rules for safety and reliability. They would rather have a broken system that creates more profit than an electrical grid that supplies dependable energy to the people. After the system failed for the second time and even more people died during the winter Governor Abbott promised to fix it, requiring expensiveupgrades so people wouldn’t face this again. But that did not happen, why? Well after he got a huge campaign contributions of over a million dollars from the energy profit makers he forgot the entire thing. I wonder why. Profit over the needs of the people. Hugs
The state’s grid operator asked that Texans voluntarily reduce their power use on Monday as the blistering heat continues, and said no rolling blackouts are expected this week.
Employees monitor the state power grid at the ERCOT command center in Taylor. Credit: REUTERS/Julia Robinson
With a punishing heat wave across Texas driving record high power demand, The Electric Reliability Council of Texas late Sunday sent out a request that Texans cut back on their energy use on Monday.
ERCOT, the state’s power grid operator, asked Texans to turn up their thermostats and postpone running major appliances between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Monday. ERCOT has also called on large electric customers to lower their electricity use.
Total forecasted power demand is expected to surpass 79 gigawatts on Monday, ERCOT said — which would set another record.
An ERCOT spokesperson told the Tribune Monday that the grid operator does not expect rolling blackouts this week.
Low winds are also making it harder for the grid to keep up with demand during hotter-than-usual July temperatures. Current projections show wind generation coming in less than 10% of its capacity on Monday, ERCOT said.
Winds in Texas often drop during the daytime, especially in the summer. ERCOT forecasts more wind power will be available to the grid on Tuesday.
Power grids must keep supply and demand in balance at all times. When Texas’ grid falls below its safety margin of excess supply, the grid operator starts taking additional precautions to avoid blackouts. The first precaution is to ask the public to cut back electricity usage.
In May, ERCOT asked Texans to conserve power during a heat wave that coincided with six power plant outages.
Texas is facing extreme heat conditions, with much of the state under temperatures above 100 degrees. As of Monday morning, the National Weather Service has issued heat advisories or excessive heat warnings for 154 of the state’s 254 counties. Some regions are breaking heat records: On Sunday, San Antonio saw the hottest temperatures on record in the city at 106 degrees, while Austin hit an all-time record high for July at 110 degrees.
Climate change has made Texas heat both hotter and longer lasting. The average daily minimum and maximum temperatures in Texas have both increased by 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 125 years. The state just saw its hottest December on record since 1889.
I would think it would be kinda tough to manufacture electric cars in a state that doesn’t provide enough electricity. But what do I know? I ain’t no billionaire genius.
They were right: everything really *is* bigger in Texas. This includes the shortsightedness of their government for not taking early steps to fix the issues with the power grid.
They have a provider monopoly that is in good standing with the politicians along with congestion pricing of energy that inflates profits during such times. There isn’t much motivation to break the vicious cycle.
Texan Republicans have been working overtime dreaming up ways to penalize women who might want to have an abortion, but they still haven’t fixed the power grid that they’ve known is a problem for more than a decade.
"Since we don't control the air our good air decided to float over to China's bad air so when China gets our good air, their bad air got to move. So it moves over to our good air space. Then now we got we to clean that back up." pic.twitter.com/BsR4GVAbX7
At one point PETE HEGSETH says “They’re committed to telling the worst story of America …” The fact that they can tell the worst parts means that those worst parts exist. It is not made up fiction, but real history. It tells you a lot about the right and the Republican party that they don’t want true history taught or know but they want a complete fiction of the worlds best most perfect country to ever be. Why? I think it is so people won’t realize how bad they have it in this country compared to other 1st world nations. Think of the benefits the public have in those countries that the “world’s wealthiest country” can not afford or manage to do. If we are so great why can we not do it here? Could it be the corporations / wealthy don’t want you to figure it out and fix it which might cost them a bit of profit. Greed and more profit is king, which leads back to why the south used slaves to build their entire economy. Low wages and bad working conditions are a poor second to the profit slavery could generate. Hugs
RACHEL CAMPOS-DUFFY: And after you leave the museum tour, which again makes you feel guilty and not so great about America, at the end there’s a gift shop where you can buy Ibram X. Kendi’s how to be a racist, how to not be a racist book —
JOEY JONES (CO-HOST): This is a racist human being who writes books about hating white people.
CAMPOS-DUFFY: Right, and all of these sort of books that are damning of America and suggesting that were still a racist country are for sale in the gift shop.
PETE HEGSETH: The funding and the people behind the foundation that runs it, all leftists, many tied to the 1619 project. They’re committed to telling the worst story of America and now they’re doing it inside the homes of the Founding Fathers.
JONES: Those aren’t historians, they’re activists.
CAMPOS-DUFFY: And those founders and the donors and the people who are on those boards, that is not a coincidence. This is a diabolical plan on their part to populate these positions that have influence over how America tells its story.
Thomas Jefferson enslaved over 600 human beings throughout the course of his life. 400 people were enslaved at Monticello; the other 200 people were held in bondage on Jefferson’s other properties. At any given time, around 130 people were enslaved at Monticello.
Slaves were bred in order for whites to get as much free labor as possible. (I’m sure you know this already) The following is a must see documentary/lecture by Jeffrey Robinson:
Just watched this on Netflix. If you don’t watch the whole thing (super engrossing), find the clip where he talks to the man guarding the confederate monument in Charleston. Ho-ly shit, not only does he shut down bullshit lost cause theory eloquently and civilly, but you get to see the cognitive dissonance on the man’s face. Scary shit, as we will never get through to some people.
I’ve watched the entire thing and know exactly which part you’re talking about. The white guy is so proud of his hatred and ignorance. And you are absolutely correct.. there’s no getting through to some people.
A white guy banging a black woman. They are probably OK with that arrangement. A black guy banging a white woman, that’s usually a different story. But then there is Clarence Thomas. I suspect his political views give him a pass in this case.
They read sex as a power exchange, and the person fucking as the strong person and the other person as weak. So yeah, white men fucking a slave probably doesn’t bother them too much.
The Texas Freedom Caucus, a legislative caucus in the Texas House of Representatives, sent a threatening letter to a law firm with locations in Dallas and Houston that planned to reimburse travel costs for employees wanting an abortion. In the letter, which was addressed to Sidley Austin LLP, the 11 representatives of the caucus wrote that legislation will be introduced to impose civil and criminal sanctions on law firms that pay for abortion or abortion travel.
“We are writing to inform you of the consequences that you and your colleagues will face for these actions,” it said. The Texas Freedom Caucus said Sidley had aided or abetted drug-induced abortions that violate the Texas Heartbeat Act, a law that bans abortions at about six weeks of pregnancy. According to the letter, litigation is already underway to identify employees who may have been involved.
Texas Freedom Caucus chairman Rep. Matt Schaefer first appeared on JMG in April 2021 when he introduced a bill allowing permitless open carry.
In February 2022 he appeared here when he declared that charging the parents of trans children with child abuse was “a hill we’re ready to die on.”
From the article at the link you can see they again are using the illegal but not ruled on by SCOTUS way of using bounty hunters / allowing anyone to sue. In the abortion case they made it very profitable by those who sue but costly for those who get sued no matter if they lose or win, they still have to pay the costs. Hugs
The proposed legislation will prohibit any employer in the state from paying for elective abortions or reimbursing abortion-related costs regardless of where the abortion occurs. According to these lawmakers, private citizens will be allowed to sue anyone who pays for an elective abortion performed on a Texas resident.
If passed, the law will grant The State Bar of Texas to disbar any lawyer who has violated any abortion statutes.
The Freedom Caucus, telling people what to do with their bodies, telling private business what to do with their personnel, and telling parents how to raise their children.
Their freedom to tell you what to do is WAY more important than your individual freedom to live the way you want to. All that shit from the reich about the libs and the “nanny state” was, once again for the billionth time, projection
It just seems so clear that their D opponents could find clips from these asshats saying opposite things. “We can’t tell private business what to do…until we do.”
Yep, and the most-obvious fact… that Republicans appear to favor candidates who are more adept at divisively trolling, insulting, and provoking others online than actually passing legislation which makes our/their lives better in tangible ways. That’s why we have assholes like Cruz, Gohmert, Boebert, and MTG in Congress.
Agree, which is the whole point here. The repugnant SCOTUS abortion decision was given a veneer or respectability by claiming that it merely turned the matter over to each state to decide, individually… and then the Republicans enacted laws to make it illegal for people to travel from one state to another to obtain the procedure.
While that clearly violates the intent of what the SCOTUS handed us, no one should be confident that the SCOTUS would defend a person’s right to travel to another state… and THAT is the danger of where we are today.
Not to worry. That would require permanent tracking of all women, total ban on all contraception, state line checkpoints and severe criminal penalties for all sluts. Just exactly like The Handmaids Tale. First, we have to stop women from having bank accounts and jobs. Next, we stop women from doing anything without their husband’s permission. Trans and gay women will be executed unless their ovaries are functioning; they will be sent to breeding farms.
charging the parents of trans children with child abuse was “a hill we’re ready to die on.” How many adult trans people today say they felt abused by parents who supported them? How many adult trans people today say they felt abused by parents who refused to accept them? Bonus question: how many adults from Christian household say they felt abused as children?
Remember… in Texas, it’s considered child abuse to provide a teen with gender-affirming medical care, but not to force a rape-victim teen to carry an unwanted pregnancy all the way to a live birth.
One of those scenarios is plainly more traumatic and life-altering than the other.
IMAGE SOURCE,RICH CAREY
IMAGE SOURCE,WILD POETS SOCIETY
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
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Scottie's Playtime 