Climate change is dying - next, Biodiversity....
Discussion
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment...
An international meeting has given the green light to the formation of a global "science policy" panel on biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Proponents say the new body will "bridge the gulf" between scientific research and urgent political action needed to halt biodiversity loss.
More than 230 delegates from 85 nations backed the proposals at a five-day UN meeting in Busan, South Korea.
The international panel is expected to be formally endorsed in 2011.
[b] Among the main roles of the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) will be to carry out peer reviews of scientific literature in order to provide governments with "gold standard" reports.
It is expected that the IPBES will be modelled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which plays a major role in shaping global climate policy. [/b]
....
The idea to establish the IPBES followed the publication of the UN's Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2005, which concluded that human activities threatened the Earth's ability to sustain future generations.
Professor Bob Watson, chief scientific adviser to the UK's environment department and one of the meeting's vice chairmen, said it was "absolutely critical" to address global biodiversity loss.
"There has been an urgent need to strengthen the legitimacy and credibility of scientific research in this field," he observed.
"IPBES has the potential to now raise global understanding of the threats we face... and empower governments to make policies to counter them, based on solid and integral scientific evidence."
Ok, tin foil hat time, but when there's rhetoric like this being written already, what's the odds that the new 'crisis facing humanity' is going to be biodiversity?
An international meeting has given the green light to the formation of a global "science policy" panel on biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Proponents say the new body will "bridge the gulf" between scientific research and urgent political action needed to halt biodiversity loss.
More than 230 delegates from 85 nations backed the proposals at a five-day UN meeting in Busan, South Korea.
The international panel is expected to be formally endorsed in 2011.
[b] Among the main roles of the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) will be to carry out peer reviews of scientific literature in order to provide governments with "gold standard" reports.
It is expected that the IPBES will be modelled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which plays a major role in shaping global climate policy. [/b]
....
The idea to establish the IPBES followed the publication of the UN's Millennium Ecosystem Assessment in 2005, which concluded that human activities threatened the Earth's ability to sustain future generations.
Professor Bob Watson, chief scientific adviser to the UK's environment department and one of the meeting's vice chairmen, said it was "absolutely critical" to address global biodiversity loss.
"There has been an urgent need to strengthen the legitimacy and credibility of scientific research in this field," he observed.
"IPBES has the potential to now raise global understanding of the threats we face... and empower governments to make policies to counter them, based on solid and integral scientific evidence."
Ok, tin foil hat time, but when there's rhetoric like this being written already, what's the odds that the new 'crisis facing humanity' is going to be biodiversity?
Sway said:
Ok, tin foil hat time, but when there's rhetoric like this being written already, what's the odds that the new 'crisis facing humanity' is going to be biodiversity?
They'd have fun selling that as a crisis facing humanity. Crisis facing other species who lost the race, yup, spot on. I say screw 'em, we've got the opposable thumbs and the brain power 
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