About 250 million years ago, some 96 per cent of animal and plant species perished in what is considered to be the largest of the five mass extinction events on Earth.
Known as “the Great Dying”, the catastrophe was caused by a series of natural disasters – among them, huge volcanic eruptions in Siberia that blasted billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and raised global temperatures by 10°C.
Worryingly, scientists believe we are now living through the sixth extinction wave. And unlike the previous five, this one is being caused almost exclusively by humans.
A landmark UN report found human activities such as resource extraction and intensive agriculture are responsible for a catastrophic and unprecedented loss of biological diversity.
The report warned a third of all amphibian species and reef-forming corals, 1,000 domesticated breeds of mammals used for food and agriculture and around 10 per cent of insects are in jeopardy.
All in all, one million animal and plant species are at imminent risk of extinction, endangering ecosystems that are critical to sustaining human life on earth.
The problem is that protecting biodiversity isn’t top of the list when it comes to big industry's environmental priorities. Such has been the focus on reducing carbon emissions that most companies would not even consider species loss a corporate responsibility.
That’s extremely short-sighted. As our research shows, companies – and their shareholders – need to pay as much attention to biodiversity as they do to their carbon footprint.
Here, mega takes a closer look at the impact of companies on biodiversity using two groundbreaking analytical tools - the Planetary Boundaries (PB) framework and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
