Tuesday open thread: More good news
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Just like on Monday I was going to write about Twitter's dumpster fire and instead decided to feature some good news, likewise today I was going to prepare a piece on the January 6th Committee's final public session and its criminal referrals to the Department of Justice, but have instead decided to write about more good news.
The COP15 conference has been going on for a couple of weeks. Whereas COP27 dealt with climate change, COP15 has dealt with arresting anthropogenic species extinction and preserving global biodiversity.
For days it seemed as if nothing would be agreed to. And then, just in time for a true Festivus miracle, an agreement was reached:
Nations have agreed to protect a third of the planet for nature by 2030 in a landmark deal aimed at safeguarding biodiversity.
There will also be targets for protecting vital ecosystems such as rainforests and wetlands and the rights of indigenous peoples.
From the same article, these are the main points of the agreement:
- Maintaining, enhancing and restoring ecosystems, including halting species extinction and maintaining genetic diversity
- "Sustainable use" of biodiversity - essentially ensuring that species and habitats can provide the services they provide for humanity, such as food and clean water
- Ensuring that the benefits of resources from nature, like medicines that come from plants, are shared fairly and equally and that indigenous peoples' rights are protected
- Paying for and putting resources into biodiversity: Ensuring that money and conservation efforts get to where they are needed.
Ameliorating and reversing climate change is one part of the challenge which faces humanity. Preserving biodiversity is even trickier. Human expansion has placed almost intolerable strains on natural habitat. As a personal example, here where I live in Inglewood, CA, local Facebook pages are rife with pictures of coyotes roaming our city's streets, pushed out of their normal habitats by human encroachment.
Add this to the agreement at COP27, and the advances in clean energy, and we hairless apes might just pull our cojones out of the fire we've set. Until we develop warp drive and can travel to other worlds, this pale, blue dot is all we have as a home. Maybe, just maybe, we're pulling back from the death wish it seems we've had for a century and more.
I know I'm a "glass half full" guy. I know that I may be branded naïve. But I always come down on the side of hope. Cynicism and despair ain't my bag.
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