Nature and Climax

Nearly every ecosystem, tree, and animal helps produce Earth’s climate. And right now, the extinction crisis exacerbates the climate crisis. Protecting and restoring nature is the biggest step we can take toward stabilizing the climate emergency. Climate change is commonly understood to be one of the drivers of extinction, affecting biodiversity in nearly every corner of the planet.
But few realize that the loss of biodiversity is also exacerbating climate change, and shifting global weather patterns. Discover more about the relationship between wild nature and climate change in the paragraphs below.

Why does Biodiversity matter for climate change?

Biodiversity is the sum total of life on Earth. It includes every individual living being, from the tiniest mosses to the largest whales, and the resulting benefits produced by this web of life.
Earth’s climate patterns are, in part, a direct consequence of its biodiversity. We can observe these relational patterns across numerous regions in the world, and some of the most significant include:
70% of the rainfall in southern South America results from weather patterns created by the Amazon rainforest The boreal forests in Russia, Canada, and Scandinavia are Earth’s largest above-ground carbon sequestration system, storing enough carbon to catastrophically change Earth’s climate if released by deforestation. Peatlands are the best terrestrial below-ground carbon storage system.
They currently cover 3% of Earth’s surface.Ocean life, from seaweed to plankton to the fish that act as natural “gardeners” of marine flora, is Earth’s most important carbon storage area.
Because of the interrelationship between life plant life and the animals that make maintain the essential balance in natural ecosystems and the climate, every time we harm Earth’s biodiversity, we destroy a living component that helps regulate the weather and atmospheric carbon.
The imminent threat of climate change isn’t just a threat to biodiversity, but also a direct consequence of mass extinction.

What can I do to help?

The biggest driver of the mass extinction that accelerates climate change is the legal destruction of wildlands for industrial extraction and infrastructure projects.
We must protect and restore wild nature in every country, region, and community. This means mobilizing private individuals to take action in their neighborhoods and cities as well as influencing elected leaders to do a better job at protecting public lands and expanding those protections to include critically important areas threatened by the imminent potential for destruction.
You can start by joining WILD’s global Survival Revolution. In the next decade, world leaders will convene multiple times to decide on how much nature people need to survive. The science is clear we need half but not all leaders are empowered to act on the science.
Your voice, united with the voices of millions of others, is an essential part of solving the climate and extinction emergencies. We need you to let others know how much wild nature we need to secure the future of life on Earth.