David Attenborough calls for global $500 billion a year investment in nature

Authored by thehill.com and submitted by Tungstendragonfly
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British ecologist and nature documentary host David Attenborough called for a $500 billion per year global investment in nature on Wednesday.

The call came during a one-day summit held by the United Nations convened to discuss the protection of wildlife on the planet.

The world spends a collective $80 billion to $90 billion on wildlife and nature conservation each year. However, according to Reuters, studies show that much more money is needed to keep ecosystems from collapsing.

Attenborough joined conservation groups Wednesday cautioning that the planet's future is in "grave jeopardy," according the wire service.

"Our natural world is under greater pressure now than at any time in human history, and the future of the entire planet – on which every single one of us depends – is in grave jeopardy," Attenborough said in a statement.

"We still have an opportunity to reverse catastrophic biodiversity loss, but time is running out," he added.

On Monday, Britain, Canada and other nations joined the European Union in pledging to protect 30 percent of their land and seas by 2030, Reuters reported. U.N. officials aim to secure a global agreement at a similar target during biodiversity negotiations set to take place in China next year.

Last week, Attenborough launched an Instagram account, posting a video sharing that his profile's focus would underscore issues threatening the environment and solutions to the problems affecting the planet.

noise256 on September 30th, 2020 at 18:49 UTC »

The fact that we can't even put 0.35% of global GDP towards an existential crisis that threatens our entire species...

Nebarious on September 30th, 2020 at 18:26 UTC »

During the Apollo missions the USA was spending 4.4% of its federal budget to develop the technology to take humanity beyond our rock to another rock, just so that we could say that we did it (and to spite their bitter rivals).

They went on a war footing to achieve an incredible goal.

We need the entire developed world to go onto a war footing today to combat the Anthropocene. If every superpower contributed 3-4% of it's GDP to developing renewable technology, developing carbon capture infrastructure, developing 'third world' neighbours and everything else we can do to reverse anthropogenic climate change... fuck, we'd actually have a shot of mitigating or reversing this apocalyptic track that we're on.

We needed to start this endeavour in the 80's when climate scientists first started to confirm their data from the previous decade. That was 40 odd years ago now. The next best chance we've got is right now, because if we leave it another 40 years it'll be way too late.

fuber on September 30th, 2020 at 17:25 UTC »

Trump announces the USA is good for $750