Humans and their livestock make up 96% of mammal biomass, with only 4% wild mammals remaining.

Key systems like the Amazon rainforest are nearing tipping points where they may fail to function, according to GOV.UK.More than 41,000 species are threatened with extinction, representing 28% of all assessed species, including 41% of amphibians and 33% of coral reefs, notes the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Biodiversity is disappearing at an accelerated rate, with roughly 1 million species threatened with extinction. The main drivers are land-use change (deforestation, agriculture), direct exploitation (fishing, hunting), climate change, pollution, and invasive species. Reversing these trends requires dramatic increases in conservation investments, sustainable food production, reduced deforestation, and aggressive climate action, suggest ESA Journals.

The solution

Ecological economics treats the economy as a subsystem of the Earth’s ecosystem, focusing on sustainability, planetary limits, and fair distribution rather than just growth. Key examples include carbon taxes to price environmental damage, circular economies that minimize waste, degrowth strategies, and valuing ecosystem services like clean air and pollination.

“Our power will come back to us, our sense of balance will come back to us, when we go back to the natural way of protecting and honouring the Earth”. John Trudell

A few sources:

How many species are there on Earth? Progress and problems
John J Wiens 1,*
Author information
Article notes
Copyright and License information
PMCID: PMC10659151 PMID: 37983223
Biodiversity 101
Wiens JJ. How many species are there on Earth? Progress and problems. PLoS Biol. 2023 Nov 20;21(11):e3002388. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002388. PMID: 37983223; PMCID: PMC10659151.
How do we define and measure biodiversity—and just why is it so important?
April 22, 2022
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/biodiversity-101
World Health Organization
Biodiversity
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/biodiversity#:~:text=Biodiversity%20loss%20also%20has%20profound%20economic%20consequences%2C,annually%2C%20threatens%20global%20food%20security%20and%20nutrition.
What is ecological economics?
Robert Costanza is one of the founders of a trans-disciplinary effort to understand how economics is embedded in the broader ecosystem that supports all human activity. From this perspective, he sees both limits for economic growth and opportunities to improve long-term human well- being. https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/what-is-ecological-economics