Business in the Age of Mass Extinction

“Nature and its vital contributions to people … are deteriorating worldwide.” These are the opening words of the executive summary from a new, critical report from the United Nations. The New York Times put it another way in the headline to its article on the report: “Civilization Is Accelerating Extinction and Altering the Natural World at a Pace ‘Unprecedented in Human History.’”

Our deflated Earth!

While curling up into the fetal position and hiding under the covers in defeat may be your first instinct, let’s step back and ask and answer some key questions first.

What does the report say? Let me be clear that I have not read the full 1,500 pages yet. But the summary for policymakers is a pithy, if depressing, 40 pages. Read even the first couple pages and you’ll get it. The short version is that through a combination of human-caused climate change and the near complete occupation of the planet by humans, we’re destroying habitats and species at an unreal rate (similar to previous extinction events from, you know, asteroids). Besides some increase in agricultural and forestry production, most natural systems that support us — like rich soil carbon and pollinator health (i.e., bees) — are degraded. And current goals for conservation are not enough to stop this train wreck.

Read the story from the Harvard Business Review by Andrew Winston - “Business in the Age of Mass Extinction.”