Pervasive human-driven decline of life on Earth points to the need for transformative change

Díaz S 1 , Settele J 2 , Brondízio ES 3 , Ngo HT 4 , Agard J 5 , Arneth A 6 Show all authors , Balvanera P 7 , Brauman KA 8 , Butchart SHM 9 , Chan KMA 10 , Garibaldi LA 11 , Ichii K 12 , Liu J 13 , Subramanian SM 14 , Midgley GF 15 , Miloslavich P 16 , Molnár Z 17 , Obura D 18 , Pfaff A 19 , Polasky S 20 , Purvis A 21 , Razzaque J 22 , Reyers B 23 , Chowdhury RR 24 , Shin YJ 25 , Visseren-Hamakers I 26 , Willis KJ 27 , Zayas CN 28

Affiliations 

  • 1 Consejo Nacional de investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (IMBIV), Córdoba, Argentina. sandra.diaz@unc.edu.ar
  • 2 Department of Community Ecology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, Halle, Germany
  • 3 Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
  • 4 Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Secretariat, United Nations Campus, Platz der Vereinten Nationen 1, D-53113 Bonn, Germany
  • 5 Department of Life Sciences, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago
  • 6 Atmospheric Environmental Research, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
  • 7 Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, CP 58190, Morelia, Michoacán, México
  • 8 Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota, 325 Learning and Environmental Sciences, 1954 Buford Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA
  • 9 BirdLife International, David Attenborough Building, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QZ, UK
  • 10 Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
  • 11 Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural, Universidad Nacional de Río Negro, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Mitre 630, CP 8400, San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina
  • 12 Center for Environmental Remote Sensing, Chiba University, 1-33,Yayoi-cho, Inage-ku, Chiba, 263-852, Japan
  • 13 Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, 115 Manly Miles Building, East Lansing, MI 48823, USA
  • 14 United Nations University (UNU)-Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability, Tokyo, Japan
  • 15 Global Change Biology Group, Department of Botany and Zoology, Stellenbosch University, P/Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa
  • 16 Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO)-Oceans and Atmosphere, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
  • 17 Centre for Ecological Research Institute of Ecology and Botany, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, H-2163 Vácrátót, Hungary
  • 18 Coastal Oceans Research and Development-Indian Ocean (CORDIO) East Africa, Mombasa, Kenya
  • 19 Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
  • 20 Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, 1994 Buford Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA
  • 21 Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK
  • 22 Department of Law, Faculty of Business and Law, University of the West of England, Bristol, Bristol, UK
  • 23 Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Sweden
  • 24 Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, Worcester, MA 01610, USA
  • 25 Marine Biodiversity, Exploitation and Conservation (MARBEC) Research Unit, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France
  • 26 Department of Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA
  • 27 Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, TW9 3AE, UK
  • 28 Center for International Studies University of the Philippines, Diliman, Philippines
Science, 2019 12 13;366(6471).
PMID: 31831642 DOI: 10.1126/science.aax3100

Abstract

The human impact on life on Earth has increased sharply since the 1970s, driven by the demands of a growing population with rising average per capita income. Nature is currently supplying more materials than ever before, but this has come at the high cost of unprecedented global declines in the extent and integrity of ecosystems, distinctness of local ecological communities, abundance and number of wild species, and the number of local domesticated varieties. Such changes reduce vital benefits that people receive from nature and threaten the quality of life of future generations. Both the benefits of an expanding economy and the costs of reducing nature's benefits are unequally distributed. The fabric of life on which we all depend-nature and its contributions to people-is unravelling rapidly. Despite the severity of the threats and lack of enough progress in tackling them to date, opportunities exist to change future trajectories through transformative action. Such action must begin immediately, however, and address the root economic, social, and technological causes of nature's deterioration.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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