How Concerning Is Biodiversity Change?

While some biodiversity change trends are deeply worrying, such as the decline of common bird species in North America, others offer hope, such as the recovery of rare birds: “I've seen in my lifetime species that were locally extinct come back, and rivers that were dead come back to life,” says Inside Biodiversity guest Henrique Pereira. “And that's because there's been so much positive development from environmental policy in Europe and in other countries in the world.”

In this episode, we explore why biodiversity change isn’t a single story of loss and why it is important to understand the complexity of the issue for science, communication, and policy.

Other topics we cover:

• What does it mean when biodiversity declines globally but not locally?


• Can we calculate average global biodiversity in a simple way, just as we calculate average global temperature?


• What does it mean to 'follow the science' when it comes to environmental policy?

Join us as we discuss these issues with Professor Henrique Pereira, research group leader at iDiv and the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.

Links:

Prof. Dr. Henrique M. Pereira at iDiv:
https://www.idiv.de/staff/henrique-miguel-pereira/

Science paper on biodiversity trends and scenarios:
https://www.science.org/stoken/author-tokens/ST-1834/full

Public talk about rewilding European landscapes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJFkhQ9VYA&list=PLJFvAPy3UkyQCmYVpSOUtT38YdNyyr5x&index=6

Host: Dr. Volker Hahn, Head of Media and Communications at iDiv
Postproduction: Leven Wortmann