Maybe biodiversity is shrinking, but the book has examples of environmental conservation efforts that have improved biodiversity in the case of tigers in India, to give one example. I strongly believe that when humans are doing better, the life around them will too. We are now more humane than ever. S Korea is banning dog meat, we have banned ivory production, rhinos are being protected in Africa.
I live in the South West of Western Australia, in a bio-diversity hotspot.
I look South, and I see bush-land, a relatively small postage stamp sized block. I've counted about 23 separate species of orchids, and a huge variety of plants, and birds. One of the species of orchids is basically a sex-lure for wasps, and is absolutely fascinating.
I look North, East and West and I see farm-land as far as the eye can see (aside from another very small "reserve" to the NE). It's just paddocks for animals, and the diversity is "cattle" and "Sheep", and the various grasses which they eat. Very f absolutely fascinating.ew birds (not many trees), much less variety and diversity. And no orchids.
That's where food comes from, and it starts with a bulldozer, it relies on fossil-fuels (including the fertiliser) to keep producing. And we're still growing.
Banning ivory and protecting Rhino's is basically palliative care at this point.
Why is that a good thing, when the normal meat factories are bad as always? Because dogs have more rights to be treated nice, because they are considered cute, unlike pigs who are way more intelligent?
It’s interesting how quickly an argument for “factfulness” morphs into cherry-picking data points as soon as the facts are unfavorable. Turns out that facts aren’t bestsellers or at least not memorable ones that everyone wants to read and share. Optimistic narratives are — they fit a human need in a time when on many fronts that matter realism and cynicism are predominantly one and the same.
You are cheery picking a few examples without looking at the whole picture. The Amazon forest is still being decimated, we are still over-fishing the oceans, and that's just for starters.
Let's not even talk about healthy soil depletion and what comes with that problem.
Insects are disappearing at an ever faster rate and they are at the base of many food chains.
Are there some things that are better now? Sure but you are looking at the tree and you missed the entire forest.
