Six actions for ecologists in times of planetary crisis

Abstract

Climate breakdown and unprecedented biodiversity loss put humanity at grave risk, and threaten human lives, livelihoods and well-being globally. Ecologists have been instrumental in revealing and detailing some of the mechanisms that drive biodiversity decline, and regularly call for immediate action¹. In response to this, a sense of emergency has entered public discourse, and is heightened with each new report and global summit; some ecological societies have been calling on their members to write to their political representatives, and many ecologists have been vocal about both scientific and societal issues on social media. Yet, despite these pockets of activity, it has been argued that the way that the discipline of ecology operates could reflect more clearly the urgency of the situation^2,3.

Several factors might contribute to the current mismatch. First, as with any other scientists, ecologists have been encouraged to place themselves in a neutral, reporting, objective role⁴. Those who deviate from this tack have encountered increasing threats to their academic freedom and activities, especially with the rise of political populism and nationalism around the world⁵. Second, the emergence of conservation biology in the 1980s provided a clear home for mission-driven ecologists who aspire to go beyond applied science⁶. Third, the scientific community is embedded in societies and economic systems that are primarily hardwired to economic growth, in which (1) facts alone do little to address systemic issues that underlie biodiversity loss and climate change, and (2) high-level decisions about research funding are increasingly shaped by their perceived contribution to economic growth^2,7.