But what if we give our fictional action heroes a new plot line to grapple with.
Climate change. Two simple words to describe a global phenomenon impacting every aspect of life on Earth. A hugely controversial and divisive subject with two main camps: deniers and supporters. Our use of language would be hilarious if the consequences of our poor communication with each other wasn’t so dangerous. Ironically, the ‘more informed’ deniers of climate change do not deny climate change is happening; no, they say any changes that are happening are part of the Earth’s natural cycles. They recognise that things are changing, but think it’s natural. The ‘supporters’ of climate change understand that the rate of change is unnaturally fast and that it’s driven by anthropogenic activities. Ironically, the last thing that supporters want is climate change to happen. So the deniers are actually believers, and the supporters are actually the enemies of climate change. It’s all rather confusing and complicated, isn’t it? No wonder no one has emerged to solve the problem. They wouldn’t know if they were a villain or hero in the story.
But, there’s no need to worry. Because fortunately, when or even if it happens, the solution will be obvious, the plucky action heroes will swoop in and save the day. Right? Wrong. It is in fact already happening. Everywhere and all at once. Slowly and imperceptibly, every day we continue to add to the impending crisis. We are starting to see more extremes in the system: hotter temperatures, more powerful storms, longer droughts, decreasing polar ice, rising ocean levels… the list goes on. We don’t need a hero to save the day by doing one act of greatness, we need 8 billion of them, all pulling in the same direction changing the way we live our everyday lives to reverse the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
But that’s a pretty boring storyline, so don’t expect a Netflix series on it anytime soon. There’s a few there concerning animals, but that’s different. People like animals more. It’s human life we don’t seem to value much.
But one thing that does get attention is the economic cost of climate change. The potential impact on GDP.
Flooding? What’s the cost to fix the damage? “How much is that going to push up my insurance premiums?” Crop failure due to drought or disease: “that’ll push global commodity prices up, damn what an inconvenience! Rising sea levels reducing the size of Small Island Nations. “Not a problem, we’ll holiday somewhere else, hope it doesn’t push the prices up too much…”.
Let’s up the stakes: widespread famine causing mass migration. “Not to worry, our borders are strong and fortified, we’ll take a certain number of refugees but every country needs to take its fair share.” “We can’t afford to help everyone, we’re not made of money….” “That’s their own problem.”
There’s a lack of action not because we don’t have the technology or know how, but because we think it’ll be too costly to the global economy to do it. Or we think it unfair that we have to pay or subsidise someone else. I hate to spell it out, but there’s going to be a serious hit to the global economy when the shit really does start to hit the fan. We’re all in this together, despite what many think. There is no planet B…..
So back to our plotline - Climate Change, the biggest threat ever in mankind’s existence. Er, actually it isn’t. There’s a bigger one. Biodiversity loss. Am I mad? No. As I’ve outlined, the richest probably have the money and resources to survive the impacts of climate change. What they can’t buy their way out of is biodiversity loss, because when our plants and animals become extinct. They can’t come back - despite what Jurassic Park would have us believe.
Allow me to go over some familiar ground with you, so you can take the intellectual short cut to the conclusion. Time is of the essence, we have none to waste.
Biodiversity Loss. Two simple words to describe a global phenomenon impacting every aspect of life on Earth. (See what I did there?) A soon to be hugely controversial and divisive subject with two main camps: deniers and supporters. But, there’s no need to worry. Because fortunately, when or even if it happens in the future, our plucky action heroes will be able to swoop in and save the day. Right? Wrong. (This is sounding all too familiar)
So, why is biodiversity loss so damaging? Resilience. The world is full of wonder, of countless species all performing similar but distinct functions and roles in ecosystems across the world. Lose one species? Something else will surely fill the niche. But how many species can be lost before there’s a problem? No one really knows, but we have clues. When you start losing what we refer to as ‘keystone species’, that’s when things start getting bad. A keystone species is one that helps define an entire ecosystem. Put simply, without the keystone species the ecosystem would be very different or would not exist at all. Think about a coral reef without coral. They are not always the biggest or most numerous, or most charismatic of species, but they have one thing in common: they have a low functional redundancy. When they disappear, nothing fills the void. These days we worry a lot about invasive species. These are species that are filling voids that we are creating or newly exposing them to. The future will be full of such instances. When the invasives become keystones, ecosystems will change beyond recognition.
Every day we continue to add to the impending crisis. Overfishing, rainforest destruction, pollution of waterways, monoculture of homogeneous crops across vast areas. … the list goes on. Once species go extinct, they don’t come back. We don’t need a hero to save the day, we need [s]8 billion of them[/s] whoever is left, all pulling in the same direction changing the way we live our future lives to work in harmony with the remaining life on Earth in a sustainable way. Because it won’t be about money anymore, it will be about survival. And that’s the difference between climate change and biodiversity loss. Beyond a certain point, only one of them is reversible.
So what do we do? Is it too late already? No, it is not. Climate change can be mitigated. And biodiversity loss can be halted. We need to take stock and observe what we have right now. We need to assess what is struggling, what is thriving, what is changing and what is under pressure now and in the future. Only then, will we be able to respond and take action to prevent our global ecosystems from collapsing. That’s our mission at SeaGen. Observe, Assess, Respond. 70% of the planet is covered in constantly moving water teeming with all forms of life - generating oxygen, detoxifying pollutants, locking away carbon in its darkest depths. Together, we need to safeguard, protect and nurture these vital ecosystems.
That’s the plot twist. In this blockbuster it’s not about one hero. We’re developing technology that can facilitate countless small localised actions where inspiring everyday people can battle together to save humanity, civilisation and life as we know it.