Protect Whom?
LISTENING: to the piano of the above song
FEELING: actually quite sad
SEEING: my cat stare me down for his next meal
It's unseasonably warm here in New York, but my mind is on Colombia, where world leaders are meeting to discuss the future of biodiversity protections.
Known as COP16, this year's conference is focused on checking in on how governments are meeting the goals they established two years ago when they signed onto the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
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Think of the framework like the Paris Agreement — but for biodiversity, not climate. The treaty sets forth a vision of where the globe should be by 2030 and 2050. Goals are ambitious, such as ending human-induced extinction and providing financial resources and support for all countries to take these actions.
The text defines its mission as such:
To take urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss to put nature on a path to recovery for the benefit of people and planet by conserving and sustainably using biodiversity and by ensuring the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of genetic resources, while providing the necessary means of implementation.
The U.S. hasn't committed to any of this.
Welcome to Possibilities, a creative climate newsletter on the possibilities that lie where crisis meets community. I’m Yessenia Funes, and we can't save wildlife and ecosystems without protecting the people who steward them best.