What should I be doing to help reverse this?

[Roch]

How do we seem to be heading in this direction even though we are constantly educated about the state of affairs?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54091048

[David1819]

Not a lot one individual can do.

One day, our sun will become depleted of hydrogen and explode taking the whole solar system with it. There will be no trace of any earthly existence. 

[lookout]

Unforgiveable man-made destruction.

[Roch]

Not a lot one individual can do.

One day, our sun will become depleted of hydrogen and explode taking the whole solar system with it. There will be no trace of any earthly existence. 

That is a long way in the future. The decline in wildlife is happening at an incredibly more rapid rate than the metamorphosis of our Sun.

[Steve_uk]

It's very serious. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54118769

[Roch]

It's very serious. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54118769

Yes I saw this. And the story about the glacier the size of Britain that has multiple water-filled fissures running through it, and which is on course to break-up and melt.

I'm not a massive fan of Thunberg or Extinction Rebellion but I am now resigned to the view that there does seem to be the need for some global, green, peace-fostering takeover of power.

How on Earth this could be achieved (see what I did there?) I really don't know.

[David1819]

That is a long way in the future. The decline in wildlife is happening at an incredibly more rapid rate than the metamorphosis of our Sun.

Well you could stop buying anymore books written by Nick Kollerstrom. Using paper to print that is a waste of tree. 

[Roch]

Well you could stop buying anymore books written by Nick Kollerstrom. Using paper to print that is a waste of tree. 

I've only ever bought one. It's meticulously researched. I'm only part-way through but it's looking likely that the Asian lads believed were taking part in a drill that day.  There were shootings at Canary Wharf that morning and it is suspected that the shootings were of three of the four lads in question.

[QCChevalier]

How do we seem to be heading in this direction even though we are constantly educated about the state of affairs?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54091048

I don't think you need to worry too much.

I don't trust anything that comes out of the BBC, and I mistrust David Attenborough, who has also been linked here.  I think both articles are alarmist and most likely untrue, or if true, then a misrepresentation of what is actually happening with the aim of stoking alarm.

What the BBC and David Attenborough are referring to is something called the Anthropocene extinction.  It's a theory.  Apparently, the Earth has been through several mass extinctions.  This latest one is allegedly caused by human activity, which may well be true, but I find it more likely that if there is a mass extinction occurring, it has multiple causes, not just human.

If you want, I can go into greater detail to show you why I think there is no mass extinction happening, but for now, I'll stick to general principles.  I am not denying that Man has an ecological problem; the point I am making is that 'extinction' is possibly the wrong conceptual frame of reference for the discussion.  A thing to bear in mind is that the extinction of species is normal in Nature, and actually desirable.  Nature is Darwinian.  Think of the animal world metaphorically as a tree that must be pruned of its weak branches in order to be strong, sturdy, fecund and fruitful.  It is an ugly and nasty reality in some ways, but it is necessary.  I'd like pandas to stick around, but if pandas can't adapt to changes in their environment, whether anthropogenic or otherwise, then pandas must die out.  Nature demands it.

It's likely that, eventually, humans will go extinct.  Or, if not that, then it is likely we will evolve into something else, or somethings else.  Nothing stays the same - which you know - but you also need to know that nothing lasts forever.  One day you and I must die.  Ultimately, one way or the other, humans as a species will no longer be here in recognisable form, or at all. 

[Roch]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/13/top-scientists-warn-of-ghastly-future-of-mass-extinction-and-climate-disruption-aoe?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

[QCChevalier]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/13/top-scientists-warn-of-ghastly-future-of-mass-extinction-and-climate-disruption-aoe?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Blah...blah...blah.....The world's going to end.....

The Guardian is today written by metropolitan Leftists with little or no understanding of the subjects they opine on.

The journalist who wrote the twaddle you link to is "biodiversity reporter" (or "biodiversity writer") for that newspaper, yet the link below tells us that her academic qualifications are in the social sciences.  What are her credentials in the hard sciences?  I suspect none.

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/phoebe-weston-ab156bb4

[Roch]

Blah...blah...blah.....The world's going to end.....

The Guardian is today written by metropolitan Leftists with little or no understanding of the subjects they opine on.

The journalist who wrote the twaddle you link to is "biodiversity reporter" (or "biodiversity writer") for that newspaper, yet the link below tells us that her academic qualifications are in the social sciences.  What are her credentials in the hard sciences?  I suspect none.

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/phoebe-weston-ab156bb4

I'm not a fan of the Guardian. In fact, I don't like any UK newspaper. They're all pretty awful for one reason or another. I've been mulling over climate change v climate change denial etc for a while. I'm aware the planet has had a torrid existence shifting between ice ages and hot temperatures with extinctions and mini extinctions. My overal gut feeling now is that we are heading for serious trouble. I do believe a sea change (pardon the pun) is needed in respect of how we govern and live our human existence. Not sure how it will happen. Mass consumerism, free marketeering, exploitation of people and habitats etc.,  the striving of military / industrial complex, brinkmanship between nation states, constant divisions, conflicts, wars, oppression, lack of honesty and integrity in institutions, lack of accountability, get rich quick schemes, lack of preparation, reactive measures etc etc etc. I can't see how this way of living is going to benefit humankind long term. Yes there may some perks along the way... but overal it doesn't make much sense to me.

[QCChevalier]

I'm not a fan of the Guardian. In fact, I don't like any UK newspaper. They're all pretty awful for one reason or another. I've been mulling over climate change v climate change denial etc for a while. I'm aware the planet has had a torrid existence shifting between ice ages and hot temperatures with extinctions and mini extinctions. My overal gut feeling now is that we are heading for serious trouble. I do believe a sea change (pardon the pun) is needed in respect of how we govern and live our human existence. Not sure how it will happen. Mass consumerism, free marketeering, exploitation of people and habitats etc.,  the striving of military / industrial complex, brinkmanship between nation states, constant divisions, conflicts, wars, oppression, lack of honesty and integrity in institutions, lack of accountability, get rich quick schemes, lack of preparation, reactive measures etc etc etc. I can't see how this way of living is going to benefit humankind long term. Yes there may some perks along the way... but overal it doesn't make much sense to me.

I believe it would be better for us if we stopped treating our natural environment simply as a resource to plunder.  The two ways to achieve this are either top-down economic co-ordination and planning, or bottom-up market forces and evolutionary technological innovation.  The latter would be more effective.  I dislike the government getting involved in things, setting targets and clumsily micro-managing choices.  I believe things are slowly heading in the right direction with the development of renewable energy and the emergence of viable electric cars.  Governments should just let the technologies develop and encourage this as necessary. These aren't real solutions because they mostly still depend on burning fossil fuels, but they are a step in the right direction and will lead to better technologies in the future. 
 
We must have some effect on the macro-environment due to the industrial-technological nature of most human societies, which makes us unique not just among the animal kingdom, but in all the planet's natural history.  Or, at least as far as we know there have been no previous human or non-human industrial-technological societies.  It's almost like we're conducting an experiment that has never been run before, just to see what happens.  It's not so much that I am sceptical about the concept of climate change.  Even people who are sceptical or even denialist will normally accept that the Earth's climate could change quite radically over fairly short timespans in historical terms, i.e. a few centuries.  However, I think the issue is exaggerated.  We can adapt, indeed we must adapt.  I think the alarmism is down to the fact that most humans in the modern era (i.e. from about the 17th. century onwards) have lost their connection to the Darwinian forces of Nature and its genetic pressures, and consequently we have become weaker as a species overall. 

Leftists, the sine qua non of climate alarmism, could almost be considered an ontological category in their own right and the logical end-point for a society detached from its natural environment.  They are frightened and prone to hysteria and alarmism about threats because they live in a hermetically-sealed bubble called civilisation.  Witness the mask wearing and the hysteria about a moderate strain of flu.

[nugnug]

i know exactly what you should do stop watching bbc.

[Roch]

i know exactly what you should do stop watching bbc.

Re the BBC, I tend to use BBC Four; Radio 4; Radio 4 Extra: BBC World Service. I'd rather listen to a Cadfael production than news or music. However, I do find the varied content of BBC World Service informative. Though I expect even with that, it's skewed. I regard the BBC as little more than a security services tool masquerading as an 'independent news broadcaster'.