A quote from a news item I read last Monday, the day that COP16 in Colombia started, the United Nations international summit on biodiversity.

“ Nearly 200 countries signed a historic agreement in Montreal in 2022 on the protection of biodiversity (the wealth of plants, animals and other life). Among other things, they agreed that by 2030 at least 30 percent of all land and water on Earth should be protected.

[This week) In Colombia, countries are negotiating the details of the agreement from two years ago to stop species decline and restore biodiversity. “

A “historic agreement” ... I get a bit irritated by terms like this.

Why do I get a bit irritated? Because there is not a single underlying agreement to implement any action, yes, you read it correctly: NOT A SINGLE.... that the countries have kept. Not a single agreement was carried out in accordance with promises and pledges.
And ‘negotiating’? Isn’t that a strange word when attempting to save biodiversity, and therefore save yourself ? Is the extinction of thousands of species each year negotiable ? As always, should we first be sure that the investments can be recouped ?

Historic ?

Not a single action is carried out as agreed. Not from those made at the previous “historic” summit, and not from all the meetings before that. That's what I call historic. A historic failure, fueled by historical unwillingness, based on historical addiction to growth for the sake of growth, to ever higher profits and to overconsumption.

Even the agreement to submit a plan was met by only a few handfuls of countries. The EU submitted an old plan, without updating it, which expires this year.

That is not just negligence, that is pure disrespect for the UN, for the countries that did make a plan, for the plants and animals in need, for the wellbeing of your children, for the Earth....

Why is it moving so slowly?

Everything that is being done to "combat" the climate crisis seems to be focused on creating as many "clean" energy sources and techniques to remove CO2 from the air as possible, so that the inhabitants of rich countries do not have to radically alter their luxury and lavish lifestyles. 

In the meantime, we simply continue to overconsume. Forests are cut down or burned, the earth is depleted of resources. The air, soil and oceans are polluted and poisoned. Drought and floods plague large parts of the inhabited world. And there is a growing scarcity of food and clean water... All our disastrous activities result in the extinction of more plants and animals at a pace not known since the extinction of the dinosaurs.

And wat do we risk? The collapse of ecosystems that we need to live, that provide us with food, water and air to breath. Why don’t we see that we have to invest more in saving species from extinction ?

The focus should be that all the inhabitants of the earth actually live in a way that they have enough with what this earth can give, without sources running dry and species going extinct.

When will we understand that an earth without a balanced biodiversity is an unliveable earth ? How many more ecosystems must be destroyed before we realize that only life within planetary limits, can keep the earth livable ?

Even if we were able -with emphasis on 'if'- to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to zero in a few decades... The temperature rise will not stop because it is 2050, or whatever date we agreed on to bring emissions to zero. And the earth would still become largely uninhabitable due to all the other destructions mentioned above.

Issues and urgency

These are the biggest issues at the Cop16 UN biodiversity conference:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/21/cop16-un-issues-defining-biodiversity-finance-biopiracy-progress-negotiations-cali-colombia

And here's what experts say about urgency:

" Humanity is on the verge of ‘shattering Earth’s natural limits’, say experts in biodiversity warning

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/21/humanity-earth-natural-limits-biodiversity-warning-cop16-conference-scientists-academics

And then, even if we give an area a protected status, this happens:

" Biodiversity declining even faster in ‘protected’ areas, scientists warn Cop16

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/24/biodiversity-declining-even-faster-in-protected-areas-scientists-warn-cop16-30x30-conservation-target

And finally this, someone who agrees with me... 😉

" Would abandoning false hope help us to tackle the climate crisis? Leaders are eager to fill us with positivity, but research shows people in distress are more likely to take collective action

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/24/we-need-a-dash-of-hope-but-is-too-much-diverting-our-gaze-from-the-perils-of-the-climate-crisis

Ambition

Yesterday I read a blog, or more a reflection, about/on ambition. The writer ended the blog like this:

" There is nothing wrong with ambition. Imagine what could be if it were directed not at empire building, but at saving ourselves. Where is the ambition to degrow?

This was my reaction:

I think personal ambition is fueled by greed, greed is fueled by jealousy and dissatisfaction. Ambition to improve something for the group is fueled by empathy, compassion, inspiration, .... It is aspiration: working together to achieve something for the benefit of others. This requires awareness. Awareness of a purpose. Awareness that the world is not about you, that you are only a small part of a whole. It is about seeking something higher than yourself, about serving the group.
Most people are not yet aware of the urgent need for degrowth. They put themselves and their material needs first, rather than the needs of the group.

Disclaimer

What I try to achieve with my climate and earth crisis inspired art and blog posts, is to paint a realistic picture of the state of the earth. Based on scientific publications, measurements and observations and common sense. Not colored by political considerations, profit, greed, excessive unfounded positivism or doomsday thinking, or conspiracy theories….

Prints of are available in my Saatchi Art portfolio at the artwork page. But of course I can upload any other size. Or contact me for a quote, prices starting at €55 / US$60.

ALL WE NEED IS LESS CONSUMING

Through my artworks I ask you to reflect for a moment on the nature around you, on the beautiful feeling that nature can evoke. Thus to think about your actions to support the wellbeing of the earth and everything that lives on it. And on what humanity loses when many of us continue on the destructive path of ever more greed and consuming. And please, reflect on how you can survive in this rapidly changing world…

So do you want to know your ecological footprint? 

Then visit this website: https://www.footprintcalculator.org/home/en 

And do you want to reduce your ecological footprint?

Then ask me, I will help you. For free. Or simply visit my website and choose in the menu for Your Footprint.

And if you appreciate my writings and art and want to support me, you can buy me a piece of fruit here: https://ko-fi.com/jacobberghoef, thank you 🍏 !

So are you interested in more? Then read what I wrote about System Change, Man's impact on the earth, Organic Change, Regenerative Agriculture, Regeneration