Nature: There are Worse Threats to Biodiversity than Climate Change

Watts Up With That?

1944 Picture of Bulldozers

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

A commentary published in Nature has claimed that careless human exploitation of natural resources poses a far greater threat to endangered species than climate change.

Biodiversity: The ravages of guns, nets and bulldozers

There is a growing tendency for media reports about threats to biodiversity to focus on climate change.

Here we report an analysis of threat information gathered for more than 8,000 species. These data revealed a contrasting picture. We found that by far the biggest drivers of biodiversity decline are overexploitation (the harvesting of species from the wild at rates that cannot be compensated for by reproduction or regrowth) and agriculture (the production of food, fodder, fibre and fuel crops; livestock farming; aquaculture; and the cultivation of trees).

Early next month, representatives from government, industry and non-governmental organizations will define future directions for conservation at the World Conservation Congress…

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