Today, however, nature is in peril. Our society extracts around 100 billion tonnes of natural resources from Earth every year.7 At the same time, we produce approximately 70 billion tonnes of waste annually, over half of which is in the form of emissions and untraced waste and pollution.8 And much of that extraction and waste goes to creating products that add only short-term value and sit idle for most of their lifespan.
Over a third of the world’s soils are moderately to highly degraded due to erosion, salinisation, compaction, acidification and chemical pollution9, according to the FAO. For agriculture this is combining with a global decline in the number of pollinating insects – caused by habitat loss and overuse of pesticides10 – to threaten long-term yields.
Together, agricultural expansion, deforestation, climate change and agro-chemical pollution are putting 1 million species at risk of extinction.11 This loss of biodiversity undermines entire ecosystems. Tropical rainforests, for instance, absorb carbon, give us essential medicines and dictate rainfall patterns well beyond their borders. But forests can’t exist in isolation – the multitude of insects, birds, and mammals that pollinate and spread seeds are as important as the trees themselves.
We have already breached six of the nine planetary boundaries12 identified by science as underpinning environmental stability. As we push past these limits – such as ocean acidification, climate change, biodiversity loss and deforestation – these boundaries interact, creating cascades that reach across multiple systems. Many of these boundaries are now on the threshold of long-term, potentially irrecoverable, tipping points.
We must move from an extractive economy to a regenerative, nature-positive economy. Instead of exhausting our planet’s finite resources we must harness nature’s ability to create self-sustaining value.
This transformative shift is already underway through deep system changes. In energy, we are transitioning to zero-carbon renewable electricity in place of the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. In materials, we will turn to regenerative nature-based alternatives to replace the non-biodegradable materials we use today. And in agriculture, we will move towards regenerative farming methods whilst restoring land to nature.
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