press release
Earth Day: Reimagining our Relationship with Nature
April 22, 2020 - Today, as the world celebrates the 50th Earth Day, individuals and leaders around the world are reimagining our relationship with nature. There is a growing recognition that the accelerating destruction of nature is contributing to the major challenges of our time: climate change, mass wildlife extinction, and more clearly than ever this year, the spread of infectious diseases. The science on these issues is increasingly clear:
The majority of zoonotic diseases come from deforestation or the destruction of natural habitat.
A major global assessment showed that the world is destroying nature at an unprecedented rate and that this rampant destruction threatens one million species with extinction.
Deforestation and land conversion for agriculture is driving wide-spread land-use change, which causes over 20 percent of global human-related greenhouse gas emissions.
To create a healthier, more sustainable planet, transformative change is needed now, and researchers say “preserving large intact areas and minimizing contact with wildlife would go a big step of the way to reducing disease.” The first step must be to stop destroying nature. It is for this reason that world leaders are coming together to set a goal of protecting at least 30 percent of the planet by 2030, essentially doubling and quadrupling the current level of terrestrial and marine protections respectively.
The Campaign for Nature has issued the following statements:
Ambassador for the Campaign for Nature, Russ Feingold said:
“Earth Day is a critical moment to recognize not only the major threats to our natural world, but to bring attention to what bold actions we must take in response. One of the most important and cost-effective steps that world leaders can take right now is to commit to protect at least 30 percent of the planet by 2030.”
Director of Campaign for Nature, Brian O’Donnell said:
“As world leaders look beyond the immediate needs of addressing the COVID-19 public health crisis and begin to focus on recovery, nature and climate should feature prominently in their plans. Acting boldly on nature and climate finance will provide unique overlapping benefits: helping to prevent future pandemics, maintaining sources of medicines, addressing the dual existential crises of biodiversity loss and climate change all while providing economic benefits to communities around the world.”
Enric Sala, Explorer in Residence at National Geographic, and co-author of the Global Deal for Nature that recommends 30 percent of Earth to be formally protected and an additional 20 percent designated as climate stabilization areas, said:
“As governments decide our recovery plans from this pandemic, it is important to remember that more than half of the world’s GDP is dependent on nature, and the overall benefit:cost ratio of conserving our wild nature worldwide is at least 100:1. The good news is some governments such as the EU, Germany, South Korea and China are already saying they want a green recovery. The most expensive thing we can do is return to business as usual, but if we protect at least 30 percent of the world’s land and the ocean, we will generate far more value than if we destroy those areas for the sake of short-term gain for a few.”
Available for interviews:
Ambassador for the Campaign for Nature and former U.S. Senator, Russ Feingold
Explorer in Residence, Marine Ecologist, National Geographic Society, Enric Sala
Director of Campaign for Nature, Brian O’Donnell
Contact:
For Campaign for Nature interview requests and quotes, please contact:
Kirsten Weymouth
National Geographic Society
+1 703.928.4995
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The Campaign for Nature is a global effort to raise awareness of the threats facing our natural world and inspire world leaders to take action to protect it. Launched in October 2018, the Wyss Campaign for Nature, the National Geographic Society and a growing coalition of conservation advocates are calling on policymakers to commit to clear and ambitious targets at the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Conference of the Parties in October 2020 to protect at least 30 percent of the planet by 2030.