As our planet faces unprecedented challenges, the loss of biodiversity has become a critical concern, with far-reaching consequences for ecosystems and human well-being. These articles delve into factors contributing to biodevastation, which is the loss of biodiversity and life. The articles explore the causes, consequences, and potential solutions shedding light on the profound impacts of biodevastation on ecosystems, wildlife, and the delicate balance of our planet.
Articles range from habitat destruction and pollution to the role of human activities in exacerbating the loss of biodiversity. We bring you expert perspectives and actionable steps to address and mitigate the challenges posed by the loss of biodiversity.
Together, let’s explore ways to protect and preserve the richness of life on Earth for current and future generations.
Each article serves as a stepping stone towards a deeper understanding of biodiversity loss and environmental destruction and the urgency to adopt better practices.
The Existential Threat of Artificial Stupidity
Bart Hawkins Kreps
The use of enhanced surveillance techniques in support of fossil fuel infrastructure expansions has particular relevance to the artificial intelligence industrial complex, because that complex has a fierce appetite for stupendous quantities of energy.
IBM was not alone in finding paying customers for nascent AI among fossil fuel companies. In 2018 Google welcomed oil companies to its Cloud Next conference, and in 2019 Microsoft hosted the Oil and Gas Leadership Summit in Houston. Not to be outdone, Amazon has eagerly courted petroleum prospectors for its cloud infrastructure.
“Utility projections for the amount of power they will need over the next five years have nearly doubled and are expected to grow,” Evan Halper reported in the Washington Post earlier this month. Why the sudden spike?
“A major factor behind the skyrocketing demand is the rapid innovation in artificial intelligence, which is driving the construction of large warehouses of computing infrastructure that require exponentially more power than traditional data centers. AI is also part of a huge scale-up of cloud computing.”
Solar Ends Growth
Henry Robertson
Sun shines, winds blow Plants grow, waters flow They’re all sunshine in the end Sunshine is the one great flow Electricity’s a flow Use it now or it will go Save some in a battery You’ve only moved a piece of flow We’ve been told but it’s not so The economy can always grow The black stuff in the ground Is fossils of an ancient flow 300 million years ago Plants locked in an age’s flow Then it slumbered underground Until a drill burrowed below Men pulled it from its rest In its buried treasure chest […]
Capitalism Created The Climate Catastrophe
Vijay Prashad
The United States has been far and away the largest producer of carbon dioxide emissions since 1750. The main carbon emitters were all colonial powers, namely the US, Europe, Canada, and Australia, which, despite consisting of roughly one tenth of the global population, have together accounted for more than half of cumulative global emissions. Carbon-fuelled capitalism, enriched by the wealth stolen through colonialism, has enabled the countries of Europe and North America to enhance the well-being of their populations and attain their relatively advanced level of development. The extreme inequalities between the standard of living for the average European (748 […]
Around the World in Drought
Robert Hunziker
Carbon emissions have turned the planet into a heat machine. According to SPEI Global Drought Monitor, severe drought is now found throughout the planet. A recent Cambridge University study claims that since 2015 European drought has accelerated and intensified. In fact, the continent is experiencing the most intense drought in 250 years. Italy’s Po River Valley, as of July 2022, has cut water for 125 towns. Drinking water is delivered via trucks to Piedmont and Lombardy, as local reservoirs no longer exist. They’re gone! Italy’s drought alert is now spreading to the central part of the country to the rivers […]
Paper Straws are not Enough
Robert Hunziker
As the UK suffered its hottest-ever temperatures only recently, Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now, interviewed Britain’s erudite environmental journalist George Monbiot July 21, 2022 about his most recent article in The Guardian: This Heatwave Has Eviscerated The Idea That Small Changes Can Tackle Extreme Weather, July 18, 2022. According to Monbiot: “Paper straws are not enough. Only System Change can halt the climate crisis.” Of course, System Change can only mean throwing out the neoliberal brand of capitalism in favor of almost anything else. Adam Smith would be spinning in his grave with today’s crony capitalism. Interestingly, “the term […]
Mass Death of Sequoias Is the Harbinger of Earth Systems Collapse
Bruce Melton
Climate change is killing giant sequoias in numbers that portend ecological disaster unless radical action is taken to reverse the impacts of the climate crisis. Sequoias, once deemed “unburnable,” began to be widely destroyed by fire in 2015, and then in 2020 and 2021, California fires tripled in area covered. A climate change threshold has been crossed. We have warmed beyond the evolutionary boundaries of our Earth’s systems. “Starting in 2015, higher-severity fires have killed mature giant sequoias (those 4 feet or greater in diameter) in much greater numbers than has ever been recorded,” the National Park Service reports. “We have reached […]
Breakdown of the Marine Food Web
Robert Hunziker
For the first time, a significant loss at the base of the marine food web has been detected. The Scottish research vessel Capepod reported the findings in equatorial waters of the Atlantic Ocean. It’s a disturbing discovery, but first a look at the marine food web, starting with the lowest organisms: (1) phytoplankton — plant-like plankton (green algae, diatoms, and dinoflagellates) eaten by (2) zooplankton – microorganisms (crustaceans, rotifers, insect larvae and mites) eaten by (3) small fish (anchovies, sardines, shrimp, squid, krill) eaten by (4) bigger fish (sturgeon, sunfish, sharks, manta rays) eaten by (5) mammals — seals, dolphins, […]
Greenland Threatens
Robert Hunziker
Greenland is sending signals to coastal metropolises around the world that it’s never too early to start building seawalls. These are not mixed signals from the big ice island. Rather, they are straightforward signals indicative of rapid breakdown of average ice thickness of 5,000 feet sooner than ever thought possible. Stating the obvious, it’s horrible news. In conjunction with freakish rain at the top of Greenland, the response to global warming has increasingly exposed humans as farcically trapped behind the biggest eight ball of all time by not taking global warming seriously. Now, there may be no way around it. […]
Will Egypt Drain the World’s Second Largest Wetland?
Robert Hunziker
“With 35% loss globally since 1970, wetlands are our most threatened ecosystem, disappearing three times faster than forests. Wetlands’ services for climate mitigation, adaptation biodiversity, and human health outweigh all other terrestrial ecosystems.” (Source: Wetlands are Being Lost at Alarming Rates, Global Wetland Outlook, 2021) Sudd is Africa’s largest freshwater wetland at roughly 3,500 square miles in an otherwise dry region of South Sudan. It’s under threat by a megaproject named Jonglei Canal that has the potential to devastate this ecological gem. According to conservationists: “Even a partial loss of the Sudd would be an ecological disaster, desiccating the […]