The State of Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss in Scotland and the World

The planet is heating up, largely due to human activity. This is changing the water cycle, leading to rising sea levels and altering weather patterns. Meanwhile, industrial agriculture, infrastructure development, pollution, habitat destruction, overhunting, disturbance and disease have drastic, rapid impacts on biodiversity.

Species of mammals, birds and reptiles are mostly declining in range and numbers across the globe. We have very scant data on the loss of insects, fish and soil fauna, even though most food production relies on them, but losses in these groups seem possibly even higher. As on land, as in the ocean: warming, acidification and oxygen loss combine with overfishing and pollution to compromise ocean health and drive biodiversity loss.

These crises have huge implications for Scotland, from the risks to food security caused by changing weather and ocean circulation patterns and biodiversity loss, to the collapse of the ecosystems that make the country what it is. Scotland has already lost more of its biodiversity than almost any other European country. Furthermore, locally and globally, the consequences of these ecological crises are not felt equally, with those who have done least to cause these problems harmed first and worst, and so justice should be at the heart of our response.

This would be testing at any time, but we have entered an era of much more nakedly transactional global politics, making effective and just action even more challenging. This panel brings together experts in the fields of climate change and biodiversity loss to discuss these ecological and political challenges, how they impact people and nature in Scotland, and what actors in Scotland can do in response.