Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet

by Hannah Ritchie

Today it seems crazy to think that we would kill something so majestic just to light a candle. But it’s a perfect illustration of how limited the supplies of our ancestors were. They weren’t killing whales out of malice. They were trying to find a source of energy, and as it turned out, whale oil was one of the best they had.

Whale oils were initially used for lighting as a fuel and machinery as lubricant.

biodiversity chapter, our goal was to protect them at all costs. Some view fish in the same way, but most don’t: they think about them as animals to catch. And when people view fish through different lenses, these debates don’t get very far.

Fish farming hasn’t always provided this safety net. In its infancy, it was really inefficient. Many farmed fish are fed on other lower-quality wild fish. Some need a lot of it. This is the ‘fish in: fish out’ ratio: how much fish you need to get one fish back in return.

What’s changed is that human pressures are increasing the frequency and intensity of these events. We’re piling multiple threats on top of one another. We’re overfishing at the same time as we’re pouring sewage and fertilisers into coastal waters. To add insult to injury, we’re simultaneously ramping up the thermostat.

They’re happening every year, even in the ‘cool’ La Niña phase. This means that corals have almost no time to recover. They are also being hit with cyclones more often, or at a higher intensity. And the pressure of overfishing and algal blooms only adds to their distress. This is like an athlete in the gym training at a high intensity, multiple times per day, with no sleep, hydration or food. It’s not long before the body breaks down.

These shorter recovery times mean it’s much more likely that a coral reef will die off entirely. That’s the big concern as the ocean continues to warm. We are pushing some of the world’s most diverse, complex and beautiful ecosystems to their limits. And we continue to pile on the pressure year after year.

It’s better to look for fish with certification labels from organisations like the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) or the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC). These councils work with third parties to monitor and check the sustainability of fish against a list of standards such as the state of fish stocks, how management practices are implemented, and impacts on other marine life.

One thing is clear: good management of fisheries can work. Populations can recover, and people still get some catch. Each boat gets a strict quota; its catch is counted when it comes back to land. Fines and penalties are dished out for overfishing.

The world is still terrible in many ways: children and mothers die from preventable diseases, nearly one in ten go hungry, and not every child gets the opportunity to go to school. We’ve got serious work to do. But many of the solutions are at our fingertips – we know what to do, and many countries have done it already. It’s possible to achieve this everywhere over the next few decades if we commit to it.

We won’t solve climate change, stop deforestation or protect biodiversity without changes to how we eat.