The World Economic Forum has issued a report entitled “Nature Risk Rising: Why the Crisis Engulfing Nature Matters for Business and the Economy.”
The reports most important conclusion may be:
Our research shows that $44 trillion of economic value generation – more than half of the world’s total GDP – is moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services and is therefore exposed to nature loss. Together, the three largest sectors that are highly dependent on nature generate close to $8 trillion of gross value added (GVA): construction ($4 trillion); agriculture ($2.5 trillion); and food and beverages ($1.4 trillion). This is roughly twice the size of the German economy.
This is particularly bad news when put next to the current measurements of global warming. NOAA has recently reported that last year was the second hottest year on record. The only year to surpass it was 2016. The report’s authors point out:
The world’s five warmest years have all occurred since 2015 with nine of the 10 warmest years occurring since 2005, according to scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).
It was also the 43rd consecutive year with global land and ocean temperatures, at least nominally, above average.
Many scientists believe at the current pace of warming, the trend will be irreversible within two decades.
While most analysis forecasts that global recessions will be caused by drops in global consumer demand or another financial implosion like that of The Great Recession, the WEF has put another reason front and center and claims it is as much as threat–if not more– than the others.
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