The Observer - 25.08.2019

The Observer

Conservation 25.08.19 29

We need to

fi ght to make

the world one

we want to live

in, rather than

giving up hope

before the fi ght

is really over

The Cites wildlife summit in Geneva is cracking

down on the trade in endangered creatures

The African elephant

African elephants play a key

role in shaping landscapes, dispersing

seeds and providing other species

with access to water. Th ough several

populations already receive protection

from trade, those in Botswana,

Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe

are currently excluded from the

Conference on International Trade in

Endangered Species (Cites) appendix I,

which off ers the greatest level of

protection. Th is month’s conference

should see all African elephants added

to th e list.

The smooth-

coated otter

Previously common in the wetlands

of south and south-east Asia , the

smooth-coated otter population

has declined by more than 30%

in the past three decades and is

now facing extinction. Otters are

important indicators of the health

of aquatic environments; however,

loss of habitat, con tact with people

and fi sheries, the pet trade and the

international trade in otter skins have

put the species at risk.

Threatened species in line

for a boost to their protection

The fi ve

and possibly their own children will be

living in an inhospitable and volatile

world. You have recently had a child...

My intuition is that we need to

fi ght to make the world the one we

want to live in rather than giving up

hope before the fi ght is really over.

The world is going to get warmer.

Almost inevitably, there will be a

lot more pain and suffering in it

than we have now. But how much

is really up to us.

At what point should panic set in? It’s

plausible there’ll be four degrees of

warming by the end of the century,

which would mean mass migration

from areas such as the Middle East

and Asia to newly temperate areas

such as Siberia and Greenland. Th at’s

not a very smooth transition for

human civilisation.

It seems hard to imagine. Yet we’re

already seeing some fair amount

of panic. The signifi cant amount

of human migration we’re seeing

in the US coming from Central

America, for example.

I am personally horrifi ed by the

way our politics are beginning to

adjust to them. We need to be much

more open -hearted and attentive

to the suffering of those around the

world rather than closed off and

hard -hearted, which is how almost

all of the countries of the west have

been over the last decade to refugees.

We’re also seeing panic in the

protest movements, which are

essentially declarations that existing

power structures and priorities are

simply not suffi cient to address this

crisis in the terms that it demands.

David Wallace-Wells will be giving

a  Guardian Live talk about the

climate emergency at 7pm on

Wednesday 11 September at Kings

Place, London N1. Tickets are £20

each or £27.50 with a copy of The

Uninhabitable Earth (Penguin, £9.99).

A booking fee of £1.26 applies

The hump-

snout lizard

Regarded as Sri Lanka ’s most

attractive lizard, the hump-snout

is classifi ed as vulnerable on the

country’s red list. Sri Lanka already

prohibits its hunting, capture or export,

but the lizard has become increasingly

popular in Japanese, European and

American pet markets.

The pancake tortoise

Th is tortoise is at high risk of

extinction due to its rigid habitat and

fragmented populations. Commercial

collectors particularly prize them

for their fl at and fl exible shells. It’s

reported that more than 40,000 live

animals have been exported over

the past 20 years.

Parides burchellanus

Th e endangered status of

this species of Brazilian swallowtail

butterfl y, an important pollinator of

riverside plants, is a cause for concern.

Illegal trade is the primary reason for

the decline in its population. Inclusion

on appendix I would reduce th e

pressure on th e species. Laura Potier

committed to protecting the planet
from an existential threat.
If the U S and China really took
aggressive leadership on this
issue, the collective action problem
would become less important

• the world’s most powerful
  countries have a way of bending
  the will of the less powerful.

Some environmentalists argue
that we need to rethink economic
growth – we need to reorient our
expectations of the conveniences
and luxuries of modern life...
I don’t yet have a fi rm perspective
on this. My intuition is that we don’t
need to abandon the prospect of
economic growth to get a handle
on climate change.
I look at the case of the US and
I see that if the average American
had the carbon emissions of the
average EU citizen, the country’s
emissions would fall by 60 %. And
I think most Americans would be
happy with those lifestyles.
The American electricity grid loses
two-thirds of all energy produced as
waste heat. We discard something
like 50% or 60 % of all of our food.
So we could achieve some quite
signifi cant emissions gains.

Millennials are expressing doubts
about having children because of
the environmental crisis – they are
concerned that their grandchildren

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GETTY IMAGES; REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; ALAMY; IUCN ; JESSICA MOREIRA