Sixty years after the birth of the modern environmental movement, humanity is closer than ever to an irreversible climate collapse, the head of the Environment Agency has warned.
The biodiversity crisis posed an existential threat to human existence, the agency’s chief executive, Sir James Bevan, said in a speech to environmental think tank Green Alliance in London on Tuesday.
Sir James is expected to refer to Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring, which documents the destruction of entire ecosystems by the indiscriminate spraying of synthetic pesticides in the United States.
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This work sparked today’s green movement, led to a U.S.-wide ban on DDT, and led to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Quoting the opening line of Silent Spring, Sir James would say: “The mornings that once throbbed in the dawn chorus with the calls of robins, doves, jays, wrens, and many other birds are now silent; There is only silence over the fields, woods and swamps.”
He will add: “60 years on, we are closer than ever to that silent spring. Since we humans and everything we hold dear depend on nature, we have the best chance of avoiding this outcome.”
The presentation will mark the release of a new report by the Environment Agency, which sets out the scale of the threat facing wildlife in England.
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The study found that 41 percent of native plant and animal species have declined since 1970, with 15 percent facing extinction.
Among mammals, birds, butterflies and moths designated as priority species, numbers fell by 61% over the same period.
A quarter of all mammals in England are facing extinction, research has found. “If it doesn’t make you angry, you’re not paying attention,” Sir James would say.
He will illustrate the link between a thriving natural environment and the clean water, good soil, flood management and carbon storage necessary for human survival.
“The biodiversity crisis is a crisis because it’s not just killing the plants and animals that are killing it, it’s killing us,” Sir James is expected to say.
Habitat
He will add: “This is because nature is indivisible and interdependent – nature provides us with many of the things we need to survive, such as clean water, clean air and food.”
Sir James will also highlight conservation challenges posed by a warming climate, such as algal blooms for wildlife from warmer waters.
But he would say there is still a chance for England and the world to turn things around, citing successful projects led by the Environment Agency to restore natural habitats.
He will use the example of Steart Marshes on the Severn Estuary, the UK’s largest coastal readjustment scheme, protecting 100,000 nearby properties from flooding. It also created 250 hectares of new habitat for wetland species.
International
Sir James will say that over 1,100 hectares of habitat has been created or restored by UNEP between 2021 and 2022.
When climate change-induced problems such as flooding emerge in England, he will urge government, business and the public to adopt nature-based solutions as the default approach to tackling them.
Sir James will also call on the international community to reach tougher targets for reversing nature loss over the next decade at the United Nations Conference on Biological Diversity, known as Cop15, in Montreal, Canada, later this year.
Research in partnership with nature – the chief scientist team report will be published on the Environment Agency page of the government’s website on Tuesday.
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Tess de la Mare is a reporter for PA.
