Transgenic corn and glyphosate, their impact on biodiversity.

1. The Disappearance of Biodiversity a Dire Omen for Humanity

Recently, after the COP15 on biodiversity held in Montreal, which resulted in a major agreement, studies on the state of biodiversity and our health have increased. The great pandemics, such as COVID-19 or the past (and future) avian or swine flu, are essentially due to the poor state of our ecological environment, livestock farming and extensive breeding. 

On the one hand, the expansion of livestock on conservation land has caused the monopolization of ecological territories where diseases that at no point have been in contact with humans have been found. The disappearance of habitats means that we are increasingly coming into contact with wildlife species, and this phenomenon has caused pandemics as a result of undue contact with wild species. COVID was not the exception, but the continuous effect.

In the 1980s, HIV-AIDS arrived into Europe as a result of the colonization of the Belgian Congo. Subsequently, Ebola originated from the destruction of the vegetation cover on the banks of the river of the same name as the lethal disease. And with COVID, the source was deforestation for the construction of the bullet train between Shanghai and Wuhan.

Although we have been trying to emancipate man from nature for almost 300 years, our reality is catching up with us. We are one more link in it and if the metabolic system —nature and the biosphere —- collapses, so do we, and that is one of the lessons that the COVID-19 pandemic left us. But we refuse to learn and continue as if nothing had happened, and it may well be so until the next health or ecological catastrophe.

This shows that good ecological health and respect for habitats are necessary for human beings. In this context, in the 1990s, the United Nations issued a number of legal instruments to curb environmental deterioration, such as the Rio Declaration with its protocols to remedy the deterioration we had caused.

Furthermore, the concern for their preservation, conservation and resilience has been increasingly instrumentalized in new commitments, such as the Kunming-Montreal 2022 Biodiversity Conference, where significant progress was made to increase related efforts.

Let us hope that this is not a false hope, as was the case for the Aichi targets. The strategic plan that emanated from this COP15 has the ambitious but vital goal of the survival of our society. To be blunt, they are even somewhat light in the face of the gravity of the predicament. Some commentators already equate it to the Paris Agreement — related to the fight against climate change — but this last for biodiversity.

Indeed, the agreement provides for "the preservation of at least 30% of the planet" — with such ambiguity; the restoration of one third of ecosystems; the halving of risks related to pesticides and herbicides; and at least a doubling of global funding for the protection of nature. But the failures of the Aichi targets and of the Nagoya COP in 2010 are present in global society because not a single commitment was fulfilled and not a single target was achieved. Furthermore, several species that were intended to be preserved and rescued are now on the list of endangered species. 

The novelty of the Kunming-Montreal agreement, which will set a precedent, is the establishment of a surveillance and follow-up framework to periodically evaluate progress and make it possible to correct the trajectory if necessary, without having to wait for the decade to elapse. This mechanism was put in place because, in the face of events, it is essential to correct when it is still possible to reverse the situation.

Unfortunately, the situation may become more and more crucial. But the facts are there for all to see. In January of this year, two reports were published in Europe that show the massive disappearance of insects and the forthcoming breakdown of the ecosystems in that region.

The numbers are frightening. We do not grasp the reality of the mass extinction we are undergoing. All this is due to man's ability to shape his environment at his will.

The main factor for the loss of biodiversity is due to the growth of urban areas on conservation and agricultural land, and to deforestation and alteration of land for agriculture and raising cattle. 

In the Mexican context, we also have the disappearance of mangrove forests for tourism developments. Moreover, the expansive agricultural model and monoculture are aggravating factors. These crops use large quantities of highly hazardous agrochemicals and pollutants that are highly toxic and poisonous to biodiversity.

When we talk about biodiversity, the collective imagination invokes large, beautiful and striking mammals: Indian tigers, polar bears, penguins and whales, among many others. We do not pay attention to other areas of biodiversity that are as important or even more so, such as soils, subsoils or coastal aquatic environments.

The over-visualization of large wild animals disturbs our understanding of reality. It is paradoxical that we are living in the era of the greatest extinction of species and that humanity and especially our children know more about wildlife today than ever before, but only through National Geographic documentaries.

According to the WWF in its annual report for 2022, between 1970 and 2018, the vertebrate population decreased in the world by more than 70%; it is remarkable that in Latin America the shocking decrease comes to 94%. Furthermore, the planetary population of freshwater aquatic vertebrates decreased by 83%. 

This does not mean that living beings have diminished. Most of the animal kingdom has disappeared; but on the other hand, the human population has exploded, today totaling over 8 billion inhabitants and with us, domestic animals and pets have also increased.

If we count the total biomass, humanity represents almost 400 million tons (mt), domestic animals 420 mt, dogs 20 mt and cats 2 mt; while terrestrial wild animals occupy only 22 mt and marine mammals 40 mt. In other words, this catastrophe of the wild fauna and flora shows us how wrong we are in the face of reality. We convince ourselves that the animal kingdom is vast and is there to amaze us. We refuse to see that it is becoming extinct in front of us. We fool ourselves into seeing that the real world is different from the one we see in documentaries.

This is why we need to revert this trend and allow biodiversity to renew itself. Let us not forget that our well-being depends entirely on it. In a declining environment, our health degrades.

I just read an article about the effects of the war in Ukraine and the increase of super bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and the serious problem that this will represent in future years. On top of that, in case of surgical intervention, they can be synonymous with death due to post-surgical complications.

The preservation of biodiversity is an imperative for planetary health. But what do we mean when we talk about biodiversity?

The word biodiversity comes from the contraction of biology and diversity.  Biodiversity is the living tissue that covers the planet and its evolution is estimated at more than 3.5 billion years. It includes all natural environments and all forms of life (animals, insects, plants, fungi, microorganisms) and all interactions between them. It is formed on three basic levels of interdependence.

The state of affairs is more than alarming: over 75% of the land area is significantly disturbed, 66% of the marine zones are subject to constant cumulative impacts, and more than 85% of wetlands have disappeared.

The main causes of the disappearance of biodiversity can be classified in short into five categories. First is the degradation of the environment and especially of soils, as well as their occupation and artificialization. The second is intensive agribusiness and monoculture practices; the next is pollution of the environment — water, soil and air; the fourth is the phenomenon of climate change; and lastly, the presence of exotic and invasive species.

Therefore, the preservation of biodiversity is crucial if we want human society to continue. There is an urgent need to modify our harmful behaviors but first, we must solve  prevalent agricultural issues, as we have already pointed out.