A loss of biodiversity threatens human survival, said Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
UNEP, founded in 1972, is a scientific body holding data and facts on how planet works. It also hosts various conventions and meetings, including the convention on biodiversity. One of its responsibilities is to coordinate resources to close the financing gap between different countries in protecting biodiversity. This year, the mission of the entity is to restore degraded ecosystems into productive landscape.
CGTN’s Cui Hui’ao spoke to Andersen via video link about these issues.
According to him, if the climate is changing, we have to recall that each species has adapted to the climate – the humidity, the rainfall, and the aridity. As we are making these very rapid shifts, that species can no longer exist. This can cause a collapse of interdependence. So climate change itself is driving biological loss. If we are ruining coastal forest that breaks the wind, if we are destroying coral reefs that break the waves, if we are draining our wetlands that absorb the floods – all of these things have an impact. So we need to be very much aware that climate change and biodiversity are two sides of the same coin.
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https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-10-11/UNEP-head-When-biodiversity-is-under-threat-so-are-people-s-lives–14hdHH5PjO0/index.html