What the Planet Needs Janet Sumner, Executive Director, Wildlands League
The two great environmental challenges of our time
biodiversity loss and climate change
https://www.cnn.com/2016/12/12/world/sutter-vanishing- help/index.html
The Earth is is on th the verge th mass f 6 th of ext xtinction event. Mass = 75% Today? 60%
IPBES report is coming and it will likely say: • Nature is in freefall planet’s support systems are stretched • widespread species extinctions • mass human migration
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/5/e1400253
Climate & Nature Interconnected & require urgent action
According to Anthony Barnosky, an extin xtinction exp xpert from Stanford, we have at most 20 years to change our rela lationship wit ith nature. . If If we do, , we can avoid id the sixth ixth extin xtinction.
Canada What can we do
Ecoregions Not Political Boundaries
North West Passage and Arctic Oceans Great Lakes (24% of the planet’s freshwater) Emerald Edge (Temperate Rainforest)
Boreal Carbon stored (billions of tonnes) Twice as much per ha as the amazon global importance
Boreal ➢ 40% of the birds ➢ 3 Billion birds travel north to the Boreal every year ➢ 5 Billion return south
Mammal Movement Yellowstone to Yukon backbone of the continent Algonquin to Adirondacks & the Appalachians Grasslands
• few regions have enough protection • The most dire is in the south because little remains intact
Start with what the planet needs In the south… • Rebuild, Restore, plant, nurture • Remove barriers to protection • corridors and connectivity • Climate Resilience, Flood Risk reduction • A Connected Network of protection • Human connection • Ethical Space
The hemisphere is relying on you.
What the Planet Needs Protect enough land, freshwater and oceans
What the Planet Needs Janet Sumner, Executive Director, Wildlands League
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