The COP 16 Convention on Biodiversity is currently being held in Colombia; it is the first summit after the signing of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Fomented by institutions and numerous environmental groups, an agreement to stop the destruction of biodiversity and fight against the sixth mass extinction that is underway was claimed as historic[1] ( According to Green Facts “in the last hundred years, man has caused an extinction rate at least 100 times higher than the natural rate”).
By Javier – Corriente Roja, Spanish State
Undoubtedly, the fight against the sixth mass extinction of biodiversity must be one of the main battles of the century, since the quality of life of the working class, of the oppressed of the world, depends on it. But after the experience of the 28 climate COPS, whose product was to give false hope in capitalism[2], to create smokescreens on the unstoppable increase of carbon emissions, and to demoralize activism, we have the obligation to denounce this summit as an international mechanism of deception.
We must ask ourselves if an agreement promoted by China (the state where the zoonosis Covid-19 emerged, whose most probable origin is in the destruction of biodiversity and the mercantilism of nature[3]), and held in a State like Colombia, which is submissive to U.S. imperialism and its savage extractivism, can achieve good results (see article by the PST, Colombian section of the IWL)[4].
For its part, the European Union, while approving the law for the restoration of nature, is the headquarters and defender of numerous multinationals that base their profits on the exploitation of the working class and the destruction of biodiversity.
This is not to belittle the struggles of millions of activists and especially indigenous peoples, who have been important promoters of this summit. On the contrary, these struggles are essential to stop the destruction and delay the catastrophe, but the sixth extinction is already a fact, and is a direct product of capitalism and the responsibility of the bourgeoisie.
But while the daily struggle and the demand that governments stop the destruction and restore ecosystems is essential, we must be very clear that these struggles are only meaningful if they have as their strategic objective the seizure of power, the democratic planning of the economy, and the destruction of capitalism. Only then will it be possible to achieve the objectives that all the agreements on biodiversity establish, and avoid the sixth mass extinction.
The restoration of ecosystems and the sixth extinction
By: Lena Souza (article published in June 2021)
This year, 2021, the theme of World Environment Day was ecosystem restoration and marked the launch of another United Nations Decade for Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030). We know that restoration is not only a necessity, it is also an imperative to sustain life on the planet. To give just one example, every three seconds the world loses an area of forest the size of a soccer field. In Brazil alone, in 2020, 24 trees were cut down every second[1]. However, a key question remains: will it be possible to restore ecosystems considering the conditions of production and reproduction of the capitalist system?
More biodiversity is lost every decade and restoration targets are never met.
This discussion on the planet’s biodiversity began in the 1980s, when the United Nations began to bring countries together to debate this issue, its conservation and utilization. After more than a decade of much debate, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was presented in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), held in Rio de Janeiro. At this Conference, in addition to the CBD, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and three other documents known as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Agenda 21 and the Declaration of Principles for a Global Consensus on the Management, Conservation and Sustainable Development of All Types of Forests were also presented.
The text of the CBD states that its provisions and principles “are aimed at achieving three main objectives: the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of natural resources”. It is important to highlight that “Both the preamble and the articles of the Convention mention the importance of traditional indigenous knowledge and peoples”[2].
Like other conventions related to the environment, although they use beautiful words and highly humanitarian and supportive objectives, they are non-binding guidelines. In that sense, they are principles and rules which are designed to distract, that is, to pretend that something is being done, while at the same time the destruction continues. Thus, in 1993, the CBD had already been signed by 168 countries, because it is easy for the leaders of the countries to sign the document and pose as conservationists.
In 2002, the environmental summit (COP6) moved towards defining a set of targets for the period up to 2010. Considering that these goals were also framed in commitments made by governments that only intended to leave them on paper, when they were evaluated at COP10 (2010), held in the city of Nagoya, Aichi province in Japan, the conclusion was that the goals had not been met.
Once again, at COP10, leaders from 196 countries approved a new Strategic Plan for Biodiversity for the period 2011 to 2020. This time the plan, called the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, took the form of 20 proposals and five major strategic objectives[3]: 1- address the root causes of biodiversity loss, raising awareness among governments and society about biodiversity concerns; 2- reduce direct pressures on biodiversity and promote sustainable use; 3- improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity; 4- increase the benefits of biodiversity and ecosystem services for all; and 5- increase implementation, through participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building.
There were 196 countries that agreed with the plan and the establishment of strategic objectives for the conservation of the planet’s biodiversity. The reader of this article, without the need to do much research, should already have a prior conclusion about the results obtained in 2020. But, in any case, it is important to reinforce that the UN itself, in an assessment carried out last year, concludes that none of the goals was achieved; on the contrary, all the factors that put pressure on biodiversity loss have intensified[4].
How far will we go?
On May 22 of this year: “The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) warned, on the occasion of the International Biodiversity Day, about the destruction of the ecosystem and the impact of climate change in the Mediterranean Sea ”[5] According to this article, the loss of biodiversity, the impacts of the climate crisis, and the pressure of economic sectors, may cause irreversible changes in the Mediterranean.
We see these kinds of warnings every day in the media, made by scholars, scientists and governmental and non-governmental organizations that study and monitor the destruction and modification of ecosystems, as the world has been in this imbalance for decades. More of the planet’s natural resources are used than it is capable of regenerating, in terms of renewable resources, but we also have non-renewable resources that are becoming scarce. Vegetation, for example, is being cut at such a rate that even if we tried to plant other species while destroying forests, the rate of growth would not be able to keep up with the rate of cutting. Just as more fish are caught than the species are able to reproduce… and so on. The so-called overall average ecological footprint[6] of the planet is 1.5, i.e. the planet needs 1.5 years to regenerate the renewable resources consumed in 1 year.
The sixth extinction is underway
Some scientists claim that, in the last 500 years, the destruction of the planet’s biodiversity has been unleashed. Further, it has accelerated in recent decades, with a population decline that compares in rate and magnitude with the five mass extinctions of plant and animal species that have already occurred in the planet’s history.
In the (estimated) 4.5 billion years of Earth’s existence, the planet went through several periods in which it almost came to an end. These catastrophes are characterized by paleontologists as major extinctions or mass extinctions. In the last 500 million years, according to these scholars, life on Earth has almost become extinct five times[7].
These five extinctions, in brief, were: the first, about 443 million years ago, in the Ordovician Period, which extinguished between 60% and 70% of the planet’s species; the second, about 354 million years ago, in the Devonian Period, which affected 75% of the species; the third, occurred about 248 million years ago, in the Permian Period, and approximately 95% of the planet’s species became extinct; the fourth was about 200 million years ago at the end of the Triassic Period, when about 85% of the species disappeared; and the fifth, about 65 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous Period, which wiped out the dinosaurs (non-flying) and most of the rest of the species that existed at that time.
For some scientists, we are already experiencing the sixth extinction as a consequence of human activities and related global warming. According to the studies developed, “a growing body of evidence indicates that current rates of species extinction are higher than the pre-human background rate…”[8]. The background rate is the normal rate of extinction on the planet[9].
The sixth extinction may be more destructive than the previous five, since it is not the result of an exceptional event, but the consequence of a process that has been amplified by the destruction inherent in the capitalist mode of production. And together with the sixth extinction is the risk for the human species, since human life on Earth is completely conditioned by biodiversity for its sustenance, since it is part of it and at the same time dependent on it.
The sixth extinction, according to scientists, is also more destructive because of its speed. According to a study published in a PNAS article[10]: … based on the background rate of the last 2 million years, 2 species are expected to become extinct in a century for every 10,000 species. Therefore, for the 29,400 vertebrate species assessed in our study, 9 extinctions would be expected in the 150 years between 1900 and 2050. Instead of the 9 extinctions expected in the hypothetical scenario, 1,058 species would become extinct by 2050. Thus, the extinction rate in 2050 would be 117 times the background rate.
Of the 29,400 terrestrial vertebrate species analyzed in this study, 515 are already on the brink of extinction because they have fewer than 1,000 individuals, leaving about half of them with fewer than 250 individuals. The United Nations report on biodiversity and ecosystem services estimates that 25% of all species are threatened with extinction, some of them in just decades.
When bombarded by denialist ideas, one might think that twenty-five percent is small. However for those who think only mathematically and individually, it is necessary to consider that when a species disappears it has an impact on the entire ecosystem, which can make the process accelerate even more. As the same report indicates: “The effects of extinctions will worsen in the coming decades, as losses of functional units, redundancy, and genetic and cultural variability change entire ecosystems”.
To a question posed in an interview to Elizabeth Colbert, author of the book The Sixth Extinction, about the debate on whether we are really in the sixth extinction, she replies, “To be honest, this is one of those debates where I think we are focusing on the wrong thing. By the time we have definitive answers to this question, it’s possible that three-quarters of all species on Earth will be gone. We really don’t want to get to the point where we can definitively answer that question.”[11].
Where does such destruction come from?
This real destruction of ecosystems occurs in two complementary ways: as a direct and immediate consequence of the activities of production and reproduction of life in the capitalist system, and through the systemic intensification of its impacts.
The main causes of the planet’s destruction is linked to the destruction of forests to make way for agricultural, livestock, mining, logging, etc. These are activities, which, while depriving the planet of forests, which are carbon sinks, also emit CO2 that feeds global warming.
In addition, there is the illegal trafficking of animals, which has also become a lucrative business within capitalism. It is considered the third largest illicit activity in the world, and one of the most profitable today. The illegal trade focuses on rare animals for collectors, for research and medicine production, and for use of leather, feathers, claws and tusks by the fashion industry. Furthermore, according to the National Network to Combat Wild Animal Trafficking (Renctas – Brazil), 9 out of 10 trafficked animals die before reaching the final consumer.
And this unbridled exploitation and destruction in search of profit is not only unsustainable from the point of view of the destruction of the ecosystems themselves. At the same time, it generates a proximity with viruses and bacteria with which we come into contact through the destruction of forests for crop fields, animal husbandry and other activities, in genetic research laboratories for production improvement, in animal trafficking, etc….
The increase in palm oil production in Guinea-Bissau, for example, not only destroyed forests, but also caused the Ebola outbreak in 2013. Avian and swine flu developed from the process of intensive industrialization in poultry and pig farming. The change in the global climate and the destruction of forests for this type of economic activity are also responsible for the concentration of bats, which are considered virus reservoirs in smaller and smaller areas, where they have contact with humans.
All these processes and their consequences have already generated 50 epidemic outbreaks of viral or bacterial diseases that have affected humans in the last thirty years, thus demonstrating that the impacts are systemic and feed on each other. For those who wondered what humans have to do with it, in addition to losing our source of survival with the destruction of ecosystems, being victims of disasters and environmental imbalances caused by global warming, there is also an acceleration in the extermination of human beings themselves and the coronavirus pandemic is proof of this.
The rich destroy and the poor suffer the consequences
In the face of the consequences that environmental collapse has been causing and is expected to cause, both governments and their sponsors, the rich, want us to believe that we are in the same boat and that the impacts affect us in the same way. Unfortunately, this argument convinces a sector of the population and also environmentalists.
But it is important to emphasize that all these impacts, resulting from the destruction of the planet’s natural resources, such as the loss of housing; the loss of fertile land, forcing migrations and causing hunger; the epidemics and pandemics that claim the lives of millions of people, mostly affect the poor. Meanwhile, the rich, who are responsible for this devastation, have the means to protect themselves. These impacts aggravate vulnerabilities and increase the threats to poorer populations relative to richer ones, increasing the great inequalities that already exist between them, as well as the inequalities between rich and poor countries.
The pandemic we are suffering is the most obvious global example of this, although we have many other localized examples of the impacts of environmental disasters or epidemics that have claimed or impacted the lives of millions of the world’s poor.
This is where the system of production and reproduction comes in, to which workers, the poor, and the planet’s natural resources are subjected. And this is the system in which ahandful of rich people have as their main objective the exploitation of natural resources and labor to transform them into merchandie destined only for profit, without any concern for the preservation of the planet and the liveon it.
Multiple sources of destruction and a single culprit: the capitalist system, incapable of reversing the process.
In capitalism, food, medicines, housing and everything that involves life are transformed into merchandise, which must necessarily generate profit, which is concentrated in the hands of a minority. This minority is divided between those who deny any possibility of environmental collapse of the planet and those who preach the illusion that the system itself is capable of reversing the trend towards this collapse. But the two sectors have one thing in common: the maintenance of this system that privileges them, even at the cost of the collapse of the planet and of human life.
Among those who call themselves leftists, there is unfortunately a sector of activists and organizations that spread this idea that sustainable capitalism is possible, strengthening an illusion that is dangerous if we consider the current reality and all the history on this subject. Capitalism, due to its own anarchy of functioning, is not able to fit into environmental regulatory framework at the global level, since its dynamics are predatory. The dynamics have not been reversed due to a lack of regulatory frameworks, but because the class in power today is incapable of doing so, as it would be to its own detriment.
This is not to say that sectors of the world bourgeoisie do not take advantage of the large public investments in areas that seek another source of energy, such as electric cars, which governments like Biden’s are promoting and investing, with the sole objective profiting from public money. Initiatives such as these are intended to foster illusions and try to appease the environmental movement while continuing, in essence, everything as it is. And it is only and getting worse since in the long run capitalism will always prioritize profits. Even the development of technology that apparently could allow less environmental impacts, such as the electric car, since it uses batteries and electric energy and consequently does not emit carbon dioxide, will only serve to fill the pockets of some wealthy entrepreneurs in the automotive sector. This is because most countries still use coal, natural gas, and fossil fuels in their energy matrix. Should the solution then be to flood the market with electric cars, or rather discuss the transportation model?
We continue to say that the only solution that can really solve the problem of the destruction of ecosystems, as well as global warming, and with it the threat to life on the planet, is the change from capitalism to socialism. What we workers and poor people of the planet need is to organize our class to prevent a handful of rich people, the total minority in the world, from leading our lives and the life on Earth towards a catastrophe. We cannot say that this has taken us by surprise. We have two possibilities: either we change the system completely for a true world socialist system, or we will continue to move towards the barbarism of which we already have several samples.
Figure 1: https://revistaamazonia.com.br/sexta-extincao-em-massa-de-animais-selvagens/
[1] https://www.pstu.org.br/brasil-perdeu-24-arvores-por-segundo-em-2020/
[2] Revista de Direito da Cidade, vol 5, nº2, p. 106-136. Challenges of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Rosemary de Sampaio Godinho and Maurício Jorge Pereira da Mota.
[3] ttps://www.wwf.org.br/natureza_brasileira/especiais/biodiversidade/dialogos_biodiversidade/metas/
[4] https://brasil.un.org/pt-br/90967-relatorio-das-nacoes-unidas-alerta-para-perda-de-biodiversidade-sem-precedentes-na-historia
[5] https://greensavers.sapo.pt/onu-alerta-para-a-destruicao-do-ecossistema-do-mar-mediterraneo/
[6] The Ecological Footprint is an environmental accounting methodology that assesses the pressure of human populations’ consumption on natural resources. Read more at: https://www.wwf.org.br/natureza_brasileira/especiais/pegada_ecologica/o_que_e_pegada_ecologica/
[7] https://www.nationalgeographicbrasil.com/historia/2020/01/terra-passou-por-mais-extincoes-em-massa-do-que-imaginavamos
[8] https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/5/e1400253
[9] http://ecologia.ib.usp.br/evosite/evo101/VIIB1dMassExtinctions.shtml
[10] Official publication of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States (PNAS) at: https://www.pnas.org/content/117/24/13596#sec-6
[11] https://www.nationalgeographicbrasil.com/meio-ambiente/humanos-sobreviverao-sexta-grande-extincao
[1] Ecosystem restoration and the sixth extinction – International Workers League
[2] COP26: decades of capitalist ‘blah, blah, blah’ – International Workers’ League
[3] The best “vaccine” against the next pandemic? Protecting natural areas and their biodiversity – International Workers’ League
[4] COP-16 takes place in Colombia, while the capitalists continue to destroy nature around the world – International Workers’ League
