We’re Succeeding on Climate. We’ll Fail on Biodiversity
Hard self-interest is forcing people to rein in temperatures in order to survive. Similar factors are bringing the extinction of other species.
How much biodiversity will 10 billion hungry people allow?
Photographer: Akos Stiller/BloombergViewed from a distance, the two big United Nations environmental conferences over the past month might seem superficially similar.
The climate change summit in Sharm El-Sheikh in November and biodiversity meeting currently under way in Montreal are both attempts to review progress and thrash out the rule book on major global environmental treaties. Both the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity originate from the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Both see furrow-browed politicians and earnest activists milling through convention halls, meeting late into the night, and making precious little visible difference.