Like so many others, I find solace in nature during these uncertain and scary times. My family is so grateful to have access to hiking trails and a garden to tend. And my time in nature reminds me about the work I and so many others were focused on before the pandemic upended our lives: promoting the protection of at least 30 percent of our ocean.
On this Earth Day—on its 50th anniversary—the case for protecting nature has never been as relevant and urgent. What kind of world will we leave to our children and grandchildren? Can we recommit to better relationship with nature and wildlife?
We need a healthy ocean, clean air and rivers, our parks and wilderness areas. These are natural assets, not luxuries. It’s important that we view them as such given their important role to provide food, support jobs, unite communities, and give people needed sanctuary from the modern bustle, a place to find personal, familial, and even spiritual fulfillment.
This pandemic reminds us how important and threatened nature is. The evidence is sobering:
- A million species are at risk of extinction worldwide.
- Three-fourths of the planet’s lands and two-thirds of its ocean environments have been “severely altered” by human activity.
- Half of all freshwater and saltwater wetlands in the contiguous 48 states have succumbed to development.
- Only 12 percent of America’s lands and less than one percent of ocean areas around the continental United States are protected.
Although we haven’t exactly been here before, we have faced environmental challenges in the past and summoned the will to act decisively to address them.
This occurred most notably in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with the passage of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and NOAA, and the advent of Earth Day. These actions and many more were part of a nationwide awakening to the widespread benefits of protecting nature and wildlife.
The intervening years have brought mixed news, including the creation of national monuments on land and at sea—by presidents from both parties. Then, a recent attempt to reverse two of those designations under the current administration.
Outside the U.S., government leaders are seizing the conservation mantle. The island nation of Palau, for example, has designated 80 percent of its ocean territory as a marine reserve, prohibiting large-scale fishing and other destructive activities. Chile, the United Kingdom and Canada, among many other nations, have also taken strides to better protect nature.
Today there is a growing global movement to protect at least 30 percent of the planet by 2030, a target based on a strong foundation of scientific studies.
The world is losing species to extinction at a rate not seen in millennia. Many experts believe we are in a ‘mass extinction’ period. A variety of factors are driving this crisis, including loss of habitat and climate change.
Research shows that protecting at least 30 percent of the world’s land and ocean areas would reduce extinctions and help keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, a key threshold for limiting the negative consequences and immense costs of climate change.
Achieving 30 by 30 protection would also pay huge dividends for people by safeguarding global food supplies and helping preserve clean air and clean water. These benefits are vital to us all but especially to the billions of people on the margins. This includes tens of millions in the U.S. In meeting the 30 by 30 target, we must work toward a more equitable and inclusion vision for nature conservation.
Watching leaders around the country act swiftly and responsibly to flatten the COVID-19 curve gives me hope that we can come together to save our natural world. The clock is ticking and 2030 will arrive quicker than we imagine.
Now is the time to recommit to protecting nature, in our own yards and communities and across the globe.
