The 2024 Living Planet Report: Biodiversity Is Down By 73%

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You may or may not have heard of a report that's been out by WWF and

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the London Zoological Society. It's called the 2024 Living

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Planet Report, A System in Peril. You've probably heard about it. Biodiversity is

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down to 73% over the last 50 years. Obviously not

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good, but you're probably also wondering is like, why should I care about biodiversity? What

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does it really bring to me? We're going to talk about the report, why

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it's important to you. why you should care about biodiversity and

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what we need to do better as scientists and conservationists to

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make sure that you do care and you know why you should care about biodiversity.

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We're gonna talk about that on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Let's

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start the show. Hey

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everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the how to protect the ocean podcast. I'm

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your host Andrew Lewin, and this is a podcast where you find out what's happening with the

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ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for

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a better ocean by taking action. If this is your first time

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doesn't matter. Here is where you find out all about the ocean. I

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am a resource for you. I have a I have a podcast, I have a website, I have

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all these different types of social media, we have videos on YouTube, and

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you can get all of that at www.speakupforblue.com. You

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inbox Monday to Friday. You get at least three

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the podcast videos or whatever we release to help you understand the

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ocean and help you live for a better ocean. Today we're talking about biodiversity

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and you're probably wondering, Andrew, why the heck Do I have to worry about biodiversity?

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Why do I care? Well, there's a report out that says, hey, you know what? A lot

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of people don't care because over the last 50 years from 1970 to

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2020, there has been at least a drop into 73% of

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species. Just to go into some of the details further,

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we've seen the decline in Latin America by 95% and Africa by 76%. Latin

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America, I believe, includes the Caribbean. The

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report highlights the tipping points for ecosystems like the Amazon and coral

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reefs that are fast approaching. And to reverse trends, the

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report calls for transformative actions in food, energy,

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and financial systems, and enhanced conservation efforts while

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supporting indigenous and local community roles. That's

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fine and dandy. That all sounds great. But why the heck aren't

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we doing it? This is the problem that we've seen a

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number of times. And to be honest, I've discussed it with a lot of

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other biologists, a lot of other conservationists, ocean, land,

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freshwater. It's all up for

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grabs. We've seen a lot of the problems in you

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know, tons of places, right? And

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it's all over the world. You know, this one reports, you know, Latin America and

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Africa seem to be the top, but it's everywhere. And we've

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seen decreases in freshwater species by 85%, terrestrial species by 69%, and marine

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species by 56%. That's

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a lot. Those are a lot of species where we probably don't know a lot about, but

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they're actually going extinct or they're getting a

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drop in those. And we talk about it on this podcast,

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right? We talk about the northern right whale. We talk about manatees. We

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talk about a lot of these different species that are either going extinct or

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are in danger of going extinct, right?

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They're on the Endangered Species Act or the Species at Risk Act, depending on

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what country you're in. Right. We've seen the decline. We've seen

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how we treat our oceans. We've seen how we develop along the coastline in

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various places, whether it be in North America, whether it be in Europe, whether it

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be in Africa, whether it be in Latin America, whether it be in the Caribbean. And we destroy

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all these beautiful places, natural places to put in what

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we think are tourist areas. Right. We see these resorts that are just

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gorgeous resorts, but they've been put in place of a

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natural area that have mangroves and seagrasses and all that kind of stuff.

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And we just ignore it. We just don't care about

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biodiversity. As a species, we don't talk about biodiversity. We

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talk about coral reefs. We talk about the Amazon forest. And

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we know that there's a lot of diversity of species that are being affected by

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those areas. And these are iconic areas. These are areas

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where we need to focus on. And we need to say, hey,

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if we don't protect these habitats,

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these wonderful ecosystems, we are going to we're

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gonna be in for it. And we are starting to be in for it, because we're starting to see

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a decline of these species, of these habitats, these

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ecosystems, whatever that might be. And that's a

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problem. That's a huge problem for

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us as human species. But again, we don't care

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about these systems. We don't care about biodiversity, because

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there's no connection. When we say biodiversity, when we say, hey, you have

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to protect everything. You know, first I want to talk

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about biodiversity. We're going to find out what that is. Because biodiversity is

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something that is so important to every

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single realm, whether it be freshwater, whether it be land, whether

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it be the marine realm. It's important to keep everything

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stabilized. So biodiversity is basically protecting all things so

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that we maintain stability in our systems. When you

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take out something from a healthy, biodiverse system,

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if an animal goes extinct from that system, right? So

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say you're in a coral reef and you have a particular species

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of parrotfish that goes extinct or is extirpated from

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that system, right? It doesn't mean it's extinct from the world, it's

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just extirpated, just gone from that area, from that one particular area.

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You'll have other parrotfish that are around that area so

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that it could still have the same function as those parrotfish, right?

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The ones that just left because you have different species of parrotfish because you

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will have this healthy biodiverse area. So you have these

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functional species that help habitats. Parrotfish will

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eat and eat algae off of coral. Sometimes they take a little bit

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of the coral with them, but it allows that coral to regenerate and

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it allows the algae to get off that coral. So it maintains a

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healthy coral. Without parrotfish or other fish that

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eat algae off of corals, the corals wouldn't get

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pruned of algae. And if you have a system where climate change is

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affecting it, the waters are getting hotter, the sun is

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on it longer, you start to get algae. right?

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You start to get nutrients that are going into the system, algae

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growth starts to proliferate. And then they outgrow the

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corals because they grow so fast. The corals need sunlight, they get suffocated. Without

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that sunlight, and then the coral, the reef just grows over,

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or the algae just grows over the reef. The reef starts to dissipate,

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and if you don't have those algae eaters, not all the time, but if you don't have those

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algae eaters, and you have other effects, accumulative, that are on this, like

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bad water quality, and climate change, and heating of

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the water, then you start to get this system that proliferates into

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a mess of algae. and you lose that biodiversity because

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you lose the coral reefs because it just spreads all across and

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all these fish are gone because they don't want to be around an area where

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they can't hide, they can't feed off of the corals, they can't feed

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on other animals that are helping the corals. It's just, it becomes a

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nightmare, right? And that's what happens a lot of times in the ocean. The

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reefs die either from overheating or bleaching or

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they die from nutrient overgrowth or algae overgrowth

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because of excess nutrients in the water and hotter water. And

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we start to see all this area that's so biodiverse, it

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just gets dissipated, right? It just gets destroyed. And then you

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have other systems such as seagrass and mangrove forests that probably have

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more biodiversity than coral reefs, but they

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are not as appealing. They're not as nice. When people see seagrass in

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the water and they're along like a shoreline, say, of a resort or

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a hotel, they're like, oh, that's gross, there's seaweed in there. But this seagrass plays

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a really important role in making sure that the species

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can hide and they can grow as a nursery habitat, you

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know, so that they can go out to the coral reef or they can go out into other systems and

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they can do their function. But without that habitat to

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help them hide and help them feed on other animals, that'll make them grow

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bigger and get stronger. Without that habitat there,

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those animals are gone. They're not going to be found there. And

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there's nothing going to be in those areas. So by taking out seagrass habitats,

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you take out the biodiversity. Same thing with mangroves. Mangroves

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are home to a lot of small fish and a lot of small invertebrates that

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use that area as a nursing area, a nursery area. And

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they just proliferate in there. They get bigger. They go to

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different areas. And that's just the system of life. That's just in

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the ocean. We're not talking about fresh water. We're not talking about land. because that's

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not what we cover in this podcast, but that's happening all over the place.

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We see the destruction of habitats for one reason or another. Whether

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it's indirectly or directly caused by human beings. And then we

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see a change in the system because the diversity goes down because there's

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been so many impacts. And then that system changes to the point where

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it's just a tipping point and it just can't be reversed. But

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if you have a biodiverse area where you have a lot of different species that

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do the same function, but one of those species gets extirpated for

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whatever reason that might be. That's just natural, you know, evolution. Those

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other functional species will be able to keep that habitat up,

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right? But as I explain this to you, I'm probably losing some of you,

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where you're just like, oh, yeah, like nobody's going to believe this. My mother, my grandmother, my

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grandfather, they're just my niece and nephew. They may not

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care about biodiversity because they don't see that

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impact. And to be honest, I've been racking my brain. I'll

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be like, how do we get people to care about

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biodiversity. How does that work? I

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don't get it. Because when we talk about biodiversity, we're not

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talking about one specific species. If I talk about a manatee, and

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I say, we need to protect the manatees, that's all great. When I was in

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school, we used to talk about the umbrella species, whales, marine

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mammals, dolphins, sometimes even sharks as

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a fish, a cartilaginous fish, elasmobranchs, where we talk about

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these fish species and marine mammal species as

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this sort of icon. Right? People love it. Same as sea turtles. People

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love it and they want to protect that one individual species. Right?

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Northern right whale, humpback whale, you know, common dolphins,

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spinner dolphins, orcas, might be

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like a great white shark, might be sea lions. You

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just never know. People connect with a lot of different animals. And

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those animals become an important conservation sort of

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iconic piece. And we call it the umbrella species because

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if you protect like a great white shark, for instance, like

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they did in California, if you protect great white sharks that

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were endangered at one point, You have to protect what they

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eat. They eat sea lions on the California coast. So you have to protect

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sea lions. So you see this endangered great white shark that people loved

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to hate at some point or were scared enough because of the movie Jaws. But

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they realized that those species started to go down. People were killing

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them. And that population needs to stabilize and

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grow. So how do we do that? Well, people realized that they were killing the

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sea lions off. Right? Sea lions were being killed off. Also, the

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sea lion's food, the sardines and so forth, with smaller

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fish, were getting eaten as well. Or not only eaten, but overfished. So

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what did they do? They came out with pieces of legislation, three

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pieces of legislation that would protect all three levels in

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that food web. So they protected the fish with the Magnuson-Stevenson Act

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in the US in the 1970s. Then they protected the sea

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lions with the Marine Mammal Protection Act in in the 1970s, and then they

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protected the great white shark as an endangered species, as

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part of the Endangered Species Act, and I don't know when that was installed. I'm

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going to say the 1970s, but I don't know if that's true. But regardless, all

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those pieces were saved, part of that food web, right?

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What happens? The fish start to come back, the sea lion population started

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to grow, and the great white shark population grew. And now, it's grown

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so much that we found that it's a nursery habit in Southern California for

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great white sharks, and that they're starting to spread around

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more all the way up north into San Francisco area, right?

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Oakland area, and in the Bay Area, Monterey Bay, and then even further

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north to Oregon. So now, like

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off the coast of Oregon, so we're starting to see this growth of a species in the

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1970s that was actually found to be endangered, and we protected

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other species. We protected the biodiversity of

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that system so that we can see one species, this one

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iconic species, the umbrella species, grow. And that's wonderful.

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But the problem is, is that sometimes when you protect one species,

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you affect another or you don't, you don't affect a lot of the other species, right?

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So by protecting the sea lions population

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and protecting the sardine population. Well, now other populations

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were ignored. Maybe that didn't really help. So then we started to move

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towards a habitat approach. Let's protect the habitats, not just

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the individual species. That still needs to be protected. That's one

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tool in the conservation toolbox. But then we need to

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protect the habitat. Right? Or a number of

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different habitats. So we started to say, all right, let's protect coral reefs. But we can't just

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protect coral reefs because coral reefs are affected by the

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number and the system that has like

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a piece of seagrass, right? A patch of seagrass or even

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mangroves or both. So now we know that these habitats are connected.

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So we started to say, let's look at the ecosystem level. a number of different habitats

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that have a different set of species or the same set of species at different life

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cycles that can maintain an entire ecosystem, that collective

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of habitats and communities, right? So that's a

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good piece. That's when we start to bring in protected areas and marine protected areas.

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And so we started to protect that. That not only protects from fisheries, right,

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making sure that fisheries isn't overfished, but it also protects biodiversity,

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right? We protect the stability of the system. And

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then we realized when you protect biodiversity, you protect that stability of

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the system, a lot of those habitats, seagrass habitats, mangrove

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habitats, coral reef habitats, have a security level that

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help the coastline maintain that

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energy dissipation of big waves that come in. So

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in 2004, a large tsunami in the Indian Ocean affected

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Africa, South Asia, and a lot of Southeast Asia islands.

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It killed a lot of people. It was very devastating. It was around Christmas time.

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And when they started to do studies after to see how

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different areas were impacted or not impacted as much, they found

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that the areas that weren't as impacted by the energy of

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the wave, the wave coming in, the big tsunami coming in, they

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realized that they had a lot of their natural systems, mangroves, seagrasses,

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coral reefs, intact. So areas that had those systems, either

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a combination of all three or a combination of two or even one, had

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less damage and less deaths to their villages and

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to the areas that were affected by the tsunami than

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those that had them removed for either aquaculture or

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they were just removed because they weren't taken care of or there was development or anything like

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that. That really started to light

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the light bulb, let's just say, and say, hey, you know what? We

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need to protect these areas. They're not only good for biodiversity, they're

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only good for fishing and feeding people. Because a lot of people depend

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on the ocean for diverse fish and artisanal fishing

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and being sure local people can eat the fish and sell the fish so they can support

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their families. That happens more often than we think. I think

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me living in North America, I talk to a lot of people who

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are like, we should stop fishing. But more often than not, most

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of the people in the world depend on some sort of

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seafood to sustain their protein that they need for

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their lives in general. So we need biodiversity to

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help with that and help support fisheries, local fisheries, as

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well as the protection, that security. But again,

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how do we get people to really care about biodiversity? You

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don't see it on the news. You don't hear it on the podcast. You don't hear

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it on sort of social media other than people like

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a friend of mine, Carissa Cabrera, who I just saw

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a TikTok where she's talking about biodiversity. And I even mentioned, I

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put a comment on there, I'm like, how do we get people interested? on biodiversity, because

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every time I talk about somebody, I can see the eyes glaze over. And

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I can't see your eyes glazing over, but maybe it is. Maybe it's not.

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I don't know. It's really difficult. So I asked some people

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around, and I even asked around. So

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I really got to think about, how do we get people interested.

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And I wrote down some notes that I'm going to talk about now. The first thing

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is get that personal connection into play, right?

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Demonstrate how biodiversity plays a role and affects the

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daily life of local communities. You might be

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in a local community, you know, around the ocean,

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right? You might be along a coastline. You might be along a

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wildlife area or a naturalized area. You might be

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around a lake. And when you start to personalize

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that, you start to say, hey, that lake that you love so much being on. To

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stay that way, to make sure that you look on the coastline and

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you see, hey, I like the look of this. I

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like having my house near it. I like walking by it. I

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like going to the beach. I like having a cottage by it. I

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like looking out to lakes. I like looking out on rivers.

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I like the natural areas, the oceans. Make it personal. Make

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it the reason why you love it so much. And

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that's not the only time that's used. I remember working with

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Environment Canada. I was doing a secondment when I was at Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

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I was working for Environment Canada. We were working on the – I was part

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of just a small part of working on the binational Great Lakes

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Water Quality Agreement. And the reason why this agreement was

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coming in is some of the people in the upper management were like, How

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do we get people to care about the Great Lakes? Like, how do

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we get people to care about the health? Like, what do they actually care about? And

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a lot of it was people wanted to just stand along the coastline

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and look out onto a lake and be like, I love this area.

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I want to see it healthy. So they don't want to see green. They

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don't want to smell something bad. They don't want to see like, oh,

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that's crazy polluted. Like, there's a lot of people that I know that will

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not step in Lake Ontario in certain spots because it's

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so gross. reputation goes around

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and people start to think about it in other spots that it's actually clean and

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they refuse to go in it and they start to talk about that then it gets that reputation of

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it being a dirty lake but it's not a dirty lake. I mean there are certain spots that

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are not great but there are other spots that you can enjoy Lake Ontario, you

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can enjoy Lake Erie, you can enjoy Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake

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Huron, you know, Georgian Bay. All these areas are beautiful, but

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it gets this reputation and it takes away that connection because people don't

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want to go close to the shores as they usually do,

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right? Or as they would like to because they hear this reputation. So

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having that personal connection and demonstrating how that personal connection will

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play a role in how biodiversity plays a role in protecting that

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personal connection, I think is really great. Education and

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awareness is the second thing. So sharing stories and facts through

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engaging media and community outreach. So this

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is where you get into the, like, on the ground kind

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of education. You talk to students, you talk to kids,

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you talk to adults, you get them in and around the ocean,

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you get them in and around the lake as community projects, not

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just cleaning up, but also enjoying the ocean. You

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know, Carissa put up a really cool post where

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it's just like, sometimes you just got to enjoy nature. And as conservationists, a lot

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of the times we talk about all the bad things

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about the ocean or all the bad things about nature, like happening to

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nature. Sometimes we forget that it's actually quite nice out there

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in certain spots, and we should enjoy it. Even though we

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talk about nature all the time, it's good to take a break every once

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in a while, get re-inspired by connecting to nature,

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but also enjoying its beauty and what it brings to us and the

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value it brings to us. It actually helps us with our mental

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health. Right. I think that's really important. So having that education, whereas

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bringing people to the coastline that are not normally exposed

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to the coastline is a really big deal. And a lot of people are

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stressing on programs or a lot of areas that are impoverished and

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they can't get to the coastline or they don't. get to go to the coastline often.

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There are programs that will bring people to the coastline so that they can see the

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value and the beauty and maybe try to go out there a little bit more often without

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these programs if they can. And so that's just not for

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impoverished or successful areas. Everybody

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needs to go out and connect to your coastline. And

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then involvement and empowerment. So encourage actions like

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conservation projects and sustainable choices. So going and

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joining a network of conservationists like Surfrider. If

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there's one in your area or you want to start one up, you can talk to Surfrider. I'm

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sure they would be happy to see a network of volunteers start up.

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But encourage that going out and standing up

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for your local area, your local area of land,

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freshwater, marine. It doesn't matter. Whether

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you love the ocean and you're 50 miles away or 100 or 500 miles

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inland, it doesn't matter. If you love the ocean, protect everything that's

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around it because if you protect the interior, the exterior

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won't be as affected by a bad interior. All the

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oceans are connected by water at some point in time and so

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by protecting all that water, by protecting the land around that water, you're

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inevitably, indirectly protecting the ocean. And

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I think that is really important. So when

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you look at involvement empowerment, get involved, get out there and

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start doing something with the ocean, with

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the lakes, with a natural area, a park or something like

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that. Get out there and enjoy it. Get out there, serve on

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conservation projects, and volunteer with

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organizations where you can. If you have the time, if you're able

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to do it, do it with your family. It's a really great activity, and

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it's good for the planet. It has a lot of impact, and it makes you feel really,

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really great. And then, of course, the last one is economic incentives to

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showcase the financial benefits of preserving nature. So

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just think about all the wonderful things you love to do in and around the

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coastline or in and around nature. People make money off of

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that. People make money off of ecotourism. People make money off

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of tourism. You know, you're not going to get these big resorts going to

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island nations if people don't go,

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if people don't enjoy those areas, right? Now, there's

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00:22:46,858 --> 00:22:50,761
protests you can do if a resort comes in and clears all

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the mangroves and clears all those areas of those natural areas

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so that you can have, you know, your fun as a tourist,

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but really be aware as an ecotourist to

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just be like, I don't want to go to these big resorts that

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destroy the area. I want to go to a resort or a

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hotel or I guess an organization or

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a company that not only has a place

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where I can enjoy the nature of that area, but also gives back

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and has an impact on the local community. So that when I go

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there, I'm not taking from the community. I'm actually giving back to the community.

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There are places that are out there and hopefully we'll have some of

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those on the podcast soon so that you can find

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out more about that. But that's an important role as

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a tourist. That's an important role as a human being to just like everything

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you do, you could have that impact. Might take a little bit more research.

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Hopefully in the future we'll be able to take away some of that research

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and make it a little easier for you to choose. But I think that's an important aspect

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of looking out for biodiversity, getting involved and

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taking action. So I'm hoping that this allows

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you to really enjoy the time

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and understand how important biodiversity

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00:24:08,221 --> 00:24:11,524
is. This is a time where

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we need to make sure that biodiversity is

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00:24:15,586 --> 00:24:19,198
protected. that we increase biodiversity in

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00:24:19,278 --> 00:24:22,761
many areas and we stop messing around and stop delaying.

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We need to hold our politicians accountable. There

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00:24:26,264 --> 00:24:29,707
are some major elections that are happening in the U.S. as well as Canada

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00:24:29,727 --> 00:24:32,870
over the next year, in the U.S. even earlier, I think the next couple of

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00:24:32,910 --> 00:24:36,753
weeks. It's important that we hold our politicians

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00:24:36,793 --> 00:24:40,096
who have been in office for a long time and haven't done

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00:24:40,156 --> 00:24:43,679
anything and refuse to do anything to help nature, but help protect

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00:24:43,699 --> 00:24:47,021
biodiversity. but also put in people who are willing to

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00:24:47,081 --> 00:24:50,442
put in the work, who are willing to make the hard decisions and are willing

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00:24:50,482 --> 00:24:53,903
to go outside the norm to protect biodiversity. It's

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important to you. It's important to me. It's something that it's

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00:24:57,404 --> 00:25:00,784
not a border issue. It's something that every country around the

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00:25:00,824 --> 00:25:04,265
world needs to protect so that we can enjoy the

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system that we have now or the system that we've had. in the past, a

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00:25:07,647 --> 00:25:10,830
nice stable system that works well for

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00:25:10,910 --> 00:25:14,153
us, that provides us with food and provides us with security. So I hope

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that helps and, you know, my big call to action is

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00:25:17,456 --> 00:25:21,104
get out, get connected with nature. And I'd love to hear your stories

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00:25:21,424 --> 00:25:24,726
of you connecting with nature. You can put a comment in the

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00:25:24,766 --> 00:25:28,407
comments below, or you can comment on Spotify, YouTube,

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00:25:28,848 --> 00:25:32,710
or you can send me a DM on Instagram at howtoprotecttheocean. I

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00:25:32,730 --> 00:25:35,871
would love to hear your stories and how you connect with

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nature and how you understand biodiversity is extremely important

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00:25:39,793 --> 00:25:43,035
to our natural world. So that's it for me for

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today's episode. I want to thank you so much for taking the time and learning about biodiversity

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00:25:46,997 --> 00:25:50,480
with me. And of course, if you know someone

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00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:53,664
who you think would benefit from this, please feel free to

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00:25:53,764 --> 00:25:56,889
share this episode. It's free to share. I really appreciate it.

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But I want to thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect

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the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. Have a great day. We'll talk to you