We tend to look at environmental problems in isolation. A holistic approach would be more effective, a new report says.
Sometimes, human needs can make problems like climate change and biodiversity collapse seem insurmountable. The world still relies on fossil fuels that are dangerously heating the planet. People need to eat, but agriculture is a top driver of biodiversity loss.
But what if we’re looking at those problems the wrong way? What if we tackled them as a whole, instead of individually?
A landmark assessment, commissioned by 147 countries and made public on Tuesday, offers the most comprehensive answer to date, examining the sometimes dizzying interconnections among biodiversity, climate change, food, water and health.
“Our current approaches to dealing with these crises have tended to be fragmented or siloed,” said Paula Harrison, a co-chair of the assessment and an environmental scientist who focuses on of land and water modeling at the UK Center for Ecology & Hydrology, a research organization. “That’s led to inefficiencies and has often been counterproductive.”
For instance, consider a parasitic disease known as schistosomiasis, or bilharzia, which affects more than 200 million people, especially in Africa. Spread by freshwater snails that thrive amid invasive aquatic plants nourished by fertilizer runoff, the disease is typically seen through the lens of the health sector and treated with medication, Dr. Harrison said. But a project in rural Senegal looked at the problem from an additional angle. Clearing the invasive plants from bodies of water reduced infection rates in children by 32 percent. After composting, the vegetation can be used as a cheap alternative to cattle feed, increasing food production.
The report, by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, an independent panel that advises governments on biodiversity issues, focuses heavily on solutions. It includes scores of potential interventions along with their cascading effects. For example, the authors note that efforts like incorporating prairie strips, areas of native vegetation amid crop rows, or strategically locating trees on farmland can help with biodiversity, food production, human well-being, water quality and climate change all at once.