A few years back, someone mentioned to me that when taking a long drive now his windshield was insect-free. That was not the case a couple of decades ago, he said. Only then the memory of childhood road trips came to me. It was true. I remember the windshield being plastered with little insects. My dad would have to stop and clean it a few times before arriving at our destination.
I am not a driver, so I never thought much about the insect on the windshield phenomenon. But the new generation of drivers, now, will never experience that problem. The absence of insects on their windshield is not strange. Actual data tells us, and it is alarming, of the great loss of wildlife. (1)
Shifting Baseline Síndrome (SBS)
Nowadays, it seems like nothing gets forgotten anymore. We can take 100 pictures and videos of all our picnic trips, birthday parties, and sports games. We believe we can have a reliable image of yesterday.
But the reality is that we are forgetting now more than ever. Things we don’t pay much attention to, we will not recall. This is the case with our perception of the natural world that surrounds us. We don’t have an accurate baseline for the loss of wildlife we are presently experiencing.
Shifting Baseline Síndrome (SBS), first came to light in 1995 by French-born marine biologist Daniel Pauly at the University of British Columbia in Canada. SBS refers to the loss of memory of the natural world by younger generations. He explains that a rare animal we see today was abundant two generations ago. (2)
Every new generation takes in the picture of the world when they come to life as their reference. When the older generation talks about wildlife abundance it’s considered anecdotal. Even scientists see these facts as unreliable as is not data recorded to back it up. We can not take proper measures to prevent the loss of wildlife if we don’t think the decline is significant in our perspective. (3)
Loss Of Wildlife
On September 10th, 2020, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) published its Living Planet Report 2020. An alarming 68% LPI (Living Planet Index) decrease in the animal population over the globe. This number was a result of 46 years of data analysis, from 1970 to 2016. The freshwater population has plummeted a worrying 84%. That is a yearly decline of 4% starting in 1970.
The report shows that the main causes of the loss of wildlife are excessive energy production and mining. Unsustainable agriculture, transportation, and logging. Together with the lack of eco-friendly residential and commercial developments.
The WWF-US President and CEO Carter Roberts, urgently call on us stating that “It’s time to restore our broken relationship with nature for the benefit of species and people alike”. (4)
Creating Awareness
To tackle SBS, Lizzie Jones at Royal Holloway, University of London advise “All we need to do is get grandparents to talk to grandchildren about environmental things,”
Jones conducted a study comparing records of data on 10 species of birds against people’s perception of the same birds. The younger generation did not notice the decline of the species. For them, the numbers of birds seem normal. They had no way to compare. (5)
The loss of wildlife is a big serious problem and needs all our attention and efforts to change the catastrophic course we are heading towards.
This is the only planet we have, our only home. As much as we like to believe that our livelihood depends exclusively on everything we had constructed to support our modern lifestyle. We are wrong. What affects every species in nature has a direct impact on our wellbeing. We need to reconnect with nature now!
