Biodiversity loss

Key people

• Andrew H. KnollAmerican paleontologist and Professor at Harvard University
• David JablonskiAmerican paleontologist
• Çağan Hakkı ŞekercioğluTurkish photographer (born 1975)
• Robert Evan SloanAmerican geologist

Timeline

• 1988Since 1988 the hotspots increased from 10 to 34.
• 2006Of the total 34 hotspots currently present, 16 of them are in tropical regions (as of 2006).
• 2018By 2018, approximately 240,000 marine species had been documented.
• 2019The 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services found that industrial agriculture is the primary driver of biodiversity collapse.
• 2020More than 17,000 species are at risk of losing habitat by 2050 as agriculture continues to expand to meet future food needs (as of 2020).

Read

• Barcoding NatureClaire Waterton · 2013Book
• The root causes of biodiversity lossAlexander Wood · 2000Book
• Ecological and Societal Consequences of Biodiversity LossMichel Loreau · 2022Book
• Biodiversity Loss Assessment for Ecosystem ProtectionAshok Kumar Rathoure · 2024Book

Watch

• Causes of Biodiversity Losses - Biodiversity and Conservation | Class 12 Biology (2022-23)Magnet BrainsVideo
• How loss of biodiversity threatens human health | DW NewsDW NewsVideo
• Biodiversity Loss Emergency: The Silent Extinction Crisis ExplainedThe Knowledge SnackVideo

Listen

• Unearthed - The need for seeds, with Cate BlanchettRoyal Botanic Gardens, KewPodcast
• Call Of The WildWWFPodcast
• SustainababbleSustainababble: comedy, nature, climate change.Podcast
• Biodiversity lossMajo LopezPodcast

By the numbers

• 4.7CO₂ per person (t) — global, 2024 (World Bank)
• 31.1Forest area (% land) — global, 2023 (World Bank)

Debates

• Should conservation efforts prioritize saving individual endangered species or protecting entire ecosystems?One view: Focusing on iconic endangered species can generate public support and prevent unique genetic loss. · Another: Protecting whole ecosystems benefits many species, maintains ecological processes, and offers broader resilience.Open question
• Can economic development and biodiversity conservation truly coexist?One view: Sustainable development models integrate conservation, showing that economic growth can occur without destroying nature. · Another: Economic development often relies on resource extraction and habitat conversion, which inherently conflict with conservation.Open question

Glossary

• BiodiversityThe variety of life on Earth, including genes, species, and ecosystems.
• ExtinctionThe complete disappearance of a species from Earth.
• Habitat LossThe destruction or degradation of natural environments where species live.
• Invasive SpeciesNon-native species that spread and cause harm to native ecosystems.
• Ecosystem ServicesBenefits humans receive from ecosystems, such as clean air, water, and pollination.
• ConservationThe protection, preservation, management, or restoration of natural environments and wildlife.

Careers

Roles this can lead toward

Threads 9

Where this connects to other fields — and why it's worth knowing.

• Globalisation History

  The cargo ships that carried tea and spices around the world also carried stowaways: ships suck up seawater for balance in one port and dump it in another, and that water is full of tiny living things. So while trade connected human cultures, it quietly launched a worldwide invasion of crabs, mussels, and germs riding along for free.

• Globalisation Sociology

  Millions of years ago all the continents were one giant landmass, Pangaea. Global shipping is quietly gluing life back together into a new one: the same containers that spread the same coffee brands everywhere also spread the same rats, weeds, and diseases. So the world's ecosystems are blurring into sameness, exactly like its cultures.

• Food & Agriculture Systems Environment

  To grow more food, farmers planted huge fields of a single super-crop, all genetically identical, like millions of clones. But a clone field is one big target: a single new disease that beats one plant beats them all. That's how Ireland's identical potatoes collapsed into famine, one blight erasing an entire harvest.

• Recommendation Algorithms Media

  A farm that plants only one crop looks efficient until one disease wipes out the entire field. Social media feeds do the same thing to ideas: by chasing whatever the average person likes, the algorithm quietly kills off variety, leaving everyone staring at the same few things. Monoculture in a field and monoculture in your feed are both fragile for the same reason.

• Precision Medicine Health

  A huge share of our medicines started as molecules found in wild plants, fungi, and animals. So every time a species goes extinct, we might be burning a book we never read, one that held the cure for a disease we haven't even faced yet. Losing biodiversity can mean losing medicine that was never invented.

• Cyber & Critical Infrastructure Global Risks

  Plant one type of crop across a whole country and a single pest can wipe out the entire harvest. Software is the same: when everyone runs the identical operating system, one exploit can hack them all at once. That's why variety, in fields or in code, isn't just nice to have, it's actual protection.

• Critical Minerals and Supply Chains Global Risks

  Running the whole world's supply through one narrow strait or one factory is efficient, but it's the same trap as a farm growing only one crop. There's no backup if something goes wrong. Nature survives shocks by being diverse, which means diversity is really just insurance.

• English as a Global Language Literature

  Weirdly, the places losing the most animal species are also losing the most languages, often the very same spots. Rich variety in nature and in human tongues clusters together and dies together. So English taking over the world looks a lot like an ecosystem going extinct.

• Genetic Engineering & CRISPR Health

  A 'gene drive' can spread a change through a whole species until that species dies out. People want to use it to wipe out malaria mosquitoes and stop the disease. But it's extinction on purpose, with no undo button if we get it wrong.