An American Agenda for Biodiversity, 1.0

What actions could the U.S. undertake to make a really big difference on biodiversity quickly?

 

1. Join the world club. Ratify the UN Convention on Biodiversity and develop the U.S. action plan. Step up and engage in the international community on global biodiversity conservation strategies.

 

2. Deal with climate. Enact a meaningful climate change program. Quickly. Integrate the protection of biodiversity and ecosystem integrity into U.S. strategies for climate change.

 

3. Manage land like a landscape. Develop a large-landscape land-management system for the United States (including public and private land partnerships) with an emphasis on natural systems that can conserve biodiversity and sustain ecosystem functions and/or help us adapt to climate change

 

4. Fix our food system. Develop a 50-year Farm Bill to restore soil quality (including biodiversity), reduce dependence on chemical inputs, better integrate habitat and carbon sequestration programs into “working landscapes,” and restore diversity in food crops and proximity to food sources.

 

5. Stop pumping toxics into the system. Enforce our pollution laws and bring them up to date with what we know about new chemical inputs and distribution in the environment. Reinvigorate initiatives to reduce global loadings of bioaccumulative toxic pollution, starting with mercury, PCBs and PBDEs.

 

6. Control invasives. Develop a comprehensive national policy to prevent the introduction of invasive species, starting with ballast water controls. Then, invest in the research to determine the best ways to deal with the mess we’ve already got, including biological controls.

 

7. Protect the Oceans. Become a global leader in protecting the marine environment and marine species, tackling overfishing, marine pollution and investing in marine research to understand and respond to climate impacts in the marine environment.

 

8. Educate as though life on earth depended on it. Invest in ecological and sustainability education. Take environmental education out of the “pond water” box (or should I say Mason jar) and build ecological literacy, trans-disciplinary skills and systems thinking into our core education from K through Ph.D.

 

9. Sew the ecological seeds of peace.  Drought, crop failures, hunger and disease foster social instability, exacerbate poverty, and create dangerously fertile conditions for violence, oppression and war. Ecological restoration can improve availability of clean water and food sources, and strengthen the social fabric, all of which contribute to stability and security. Our security depends on greater ecological security throughout the world, and US investments in this arena will benefit life on earth, and earth’s people.

 

10. Improve education and economic opportunity for women in the developing world. These are the perhaps the most powerful tools for stabilizing population and improving health, stability and environmental quality in much of the world.

 

I’d love to see what’s on your top-ten list, and then perhaps we could get together with others who are thinking seriously about this topic and ally our strengths.