Ecosystems Includes: Oceans, rivers, mountains, plains, air, climate, soil, swamps, lakes, forests, land use, etc. Reflects on: climate change, climate adaptation, ecosystem services, ecosystem restoration, natural capital Our ecosystems are the bridges to life. They consist of ‘dead’ materials and cycles of energy through them, to create the conditions in which life can exist and flourish. They are the oceans, plains, mountains, rivers, and swamps that are our habitats. They are the grounds on which forests grow, the lakes where fish and insects live, the processes that clean the water we drink and provide the soil in which our food grows. They are the air we breathe, and the ozone layer that protects us from harmful rays from the sun. Ecosystems have shaped over millions of years and are constantly moving, changing, and adjusting. The idea exists, launched in the 60’s, that ecosystems are naturally in balance. But, as research shows, complex systems such as ecosystems are never in balance, forever changing, but they can be in more or less healthy states. What is true is that they can be upset and go into decline by changing some of their fundamental operating mechanics. One of the most important ones of these of late is climate change. The main reason for this, science shows, is due to the influence of added carbon dioxide (and equivalent) gasses into the atmosphere. Because of this, our global weather systems are changing, sea levels are rising, and habitats shifting. While change itself is not a bad thing, and part of the natural process, it is the rate of change that is problematic. This is now so fast, that species do not have enough time to adapt, and consequently go extinct. Our society also is not fast enough to adapt, with island nations already disappearing, and nowhere for their people to go. This fast rate of change causes not just the alteration of weather patterns, it causes them to become unstable, resulting in erratic weather conditions, and increased natural disasters such as hurricanes, and flash floods. This process is underway and is not something we can suddenly stop. Complex interactions are occurring which may worsen or relieve this change over time, including the laying bare of permafrost lands in Siberia releasing extra greenhouse gasses, and increasing ocean acidification. What’s clear is that we’re facing a changing biotope on this planet. For some communities this may turn out to be worse than for others. Island communities need to prepare for rising sea levels to a degree where some need to entirely abandon their societies, such as the island of Tuvalu in the Pacific Ocean. For others it may make it possible to farm on lands that were too cold or dry to use before. What it does guarantee is a need for change and adaptation. These efforts are usually caught under the nomer of ‘climate adaptation’, and is supported by a number of international development organizations. Ecosystems are the heavy laborers of our life support system. The services they provide to clean air and water alone are of such a scale that we could never replace them with technical means. Meanwhile, they create habitats for life which in turn provide services that bring us material resources, protection, and nourishment. While ecosystems are hard to value using conventional pricing schemes, they are of fundamental value to everyone, across borders and political spectrums. Natural capital system A framework that is under development by the international community and gaining increasing support for its global adaptation is the ‘Natural Capital’ system. This system attempts to form a framework for the evaluation and quantification of the value that natural ecosystem services deliver, and to account for this on national and regional levels. A possible policy instrument derived from this could be an Environmental Profit & Loss (EPL) statement, tracked each year. For any action that takes away from the EPL, another action would be required to offset this with a positive contribution. While Natural Capital has seen its fair share of debate on whether or not we can put a (monetary) value on ecosystems as a principle, the debate has come to a point where most participating parties agree that at the very least, putting a value of some kind on our natural resources is critical to prevent them from being used for nothing. While it’s a given that not all value can be captured in this quantification, serious attempts are made at approximating it with some sensibility, which forms a foundation of a better understanding of the value of natural system to the economy, our culture, and our continued existence. See more about this in the 4.16 Natural Capital section in the Tools chapter. SiD is useful in a Natural Capital process and its evaluation. It has been used to help unravel impact frameworks and value estimation for things such as soil, as well as impact mapping for green in urban environments. Species Includes: Mammals, birds, insects, bacteria, amphibians, rodents, reptiles, fungi, trees, plants, weeds, etc. Reflects on: biomimicry, biodiversity, habitats, food, hygiene, invasive species, environmental ethics, etc. Life on our planet exists in a multitude of species, believed to stem from a single origin. Traditionally, these species are categorized in five or six Kingdoms, including Animals, Plants, Fungi, Protists, Archaea, and Bacteria, of which the last three are all micro-organisms. We rely on these networks of species to provide the ecosystem services we’ve taken for granted in the last few centuries. We rely on them for food, water, medicine, and materials. We rely on them to make our environments habitable, prevent plagues and disease, and create the conditions to grow all our supplies in. These networks are under stress. In addition, the disappearance of one key species may cause a cascade of species loss. For example, coral reefs are also called the nurseries of the oceans, because of their vital role in providing a protective environment for other species’ mating and hatching. Their rapid disappearance due to ocean acidification (a consequence of rising CO
levels) is causing a rapid loss of life in our marine ecosystems. The value of productive species Species provide useful services for a wide variety of purposes. To switch to a bio-based economy, no other resources are as valuable as other species. Biological systems can process materials, create intelligent and efficient structures, and can provide a host of processing functions which our technical systems can’t come close to comparing to. We can use the beneficial qualities of all these other creatures we share this planet with to shape a better society. This makes protecting biodiversity and researching ways to symbiotically co-exist with rich biodiverse environments a developmental priority. Typically, when doing ELSI sweeps with teams, the Species section gathers the least ideas and interest. When doing brainstorms in most industries about potential values, problems and solutions, sometimes this section is entirely empty. This is indicative of how far we have removed ourselves from the natural world in our thinking, and it shows us how much opportunity we have left to explore there. Since one of our most pressing challenges for survival is our current massive biodiversity loss, this is highly concerning. Pay special attention in group processes to make sure Species and Ecosystems are explored sufficiently. The diversity of life All life on earth is based on carbon, bonded with other elements, most notably oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. From these basic building blocks an unimaginable richness and diversity of life sprouts beyond our wildest imagination, from the depths of our oceans to the highest mountain top. This diversity has grown through 3.6 billion years of evolution, on a planet that’s 4.6 billion years old. Of those 3.6 billion years, mammals have only existed for about 200 million years, and the world’s oldest existing life form is thought to be a one hundred million year old single celled Protozoan living in a lake in Norway. Among this spectrum of life we humans have come to peek around the corner only 200.000 years ago. We evolved in an incredibly rich biotope where countless species interact, exchange and co-habitate. While most of us are ready to be awestruck and inspired by the rich diversity and ingenuity of life that surrounds us, our daily actions are also helping to rapidly kill it off. Between the different institutions that keep track of global biodiversity such as WWF and IUCN, the rate at which species are disappearing lies between 1.000 and 10.000 times the natural extinction rate. In some areas, like amphibians, almost 30% of all species are threatened with extinction, and 21% of all mammals. This all means we are witnessing the sixth mass extinction event since the birth of life. The main cause of this 6th event, science says, is human activity. This is not just bad for these species, it’s bad for us. Tools and examples When looking at biodiversity, we have two clear challenges: to stop and prevent further harm to biodiversity and endangered species, and to start reconstructing habitats and reintroduce biodiversity in urban and degraded landscapes. For the first, an important tool is the IUCN red list of endangered species. This list is the global standard for species endangerment. The second does not currently have a readily useful tool, but various organizations, such as IUCN and WWF, are working on these in various communities of practice.