In our globalized, internet-connected society, whatever you choose to do with your life, it helps to pay attention to the broader world. Ideas, both bad and good, can go global and have a way of connecting right up to you.
I recently joined a group of my college’s alumni called ClassACT, which aims to get the 1992 Convention on Biodiversity signed by the U.S. Treaties take a two-thirds vote in the Senate, which failed to ratify the global treaty back in 1993. The U.S. shares the company of Andorra, Iraq, and Somalia as the only countries that have not signed.
The good news is that the “Conference of the Parties” has met periodically since 1992 and made some headway on the protection of nature, an idea so close to our hearts and, for many of us, our daily employment. In 2016, E.O. Wilson planted a seed that has since manifested as the target 30X30: 30 percent of land and oceans conserved by 2030.
Our local expression of the idea is the Vermont Alliance for Half-Earth. Maybe the seed is now a small tree. Its strong roots, capable of raising concrete sidewalks, might even lift the U.S. Senate.
1992: Convention on Biodiversity signed by 150 nations at the Rio de Janeiro “Earth Summit”—subsequently ratified by 191 parties, excluding the U.S.
1999-2000: Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety: started at a Conference of the Parties in Colombia, ratified in Canada.
2010: 10th Conference of the Parties (COP 10), Japan: Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, including the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. 2016: COP 13, Mexico: Cancun Declaration on Mainstreaming the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity for Well-Being.
2016: E.O. Wilson publishes Half Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life.
2018: COP 14, Egypt: Declaration on Investing in Biodiversity for People and Planet.
2019: COP 14, Germany: Towards the Vision 2050 on Biodiversity: Living in Harmony with Nature.
2019: COP 14, India: The New Delhi Declaration: Investing in Land and Unlocking Opportunities.
2019: 30X30 proposed in Science Advances.
2021: COP 15, Canada: Promoted the inclusion of 30X30 in the final biodiversity treaty.
2021: COP 15, China: Kunming Declaration on an effective post-2020 global biodiversity framework; President Xi pledges $230 million for biodiversity protection in developing countries.
2021: U.S. committed to 30X30 in Biden’s Executive Order 14008: Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.
