More than four years in the making, the report is written by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), a body made up of more than 140 countries that provides policymakers with scientific assessments to help protect Earth’s biodiversity and prevent extinctions. A summary of the findings was approved over the weekend in Germany and released Monday, with full chapters slated to be published later this year.
The body concluded the threat from invasive species is “underappreciated, underestimated and often unacknowledged,” with only about a sixth of the world’s nations having laws or regulations on the books addressing invasive plants and animals. With new species introduced at an “unprecedented” rate of 200 a year, the problem is expected to get worse before it gets better.
Highlights from the article:
$423 billion is an extremely conservative estimate for the financial damage caused by invasive species
The authors consider the increasingly rapid spread of invasive species to be an existential threat; "One of the things that we stress that really is the tremendous threat this does pose to — and I know this is going to sound grandiose — but to human civilization"
Invasive species play a role in 60% of extinctions
Even the fucking Antarctic is in danger from invasive species - invasive grasses are taking advantage of melting glaciers to turn parts of Antarctica into grasslands
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