German environmental minister warns of ‘species crisis’

The new German environmental minister, Steffi Lemke, has sounded a warning that the subsequent international problem will likely be what she calls the “species crisis.”
Speaking to German publication Süddeutsche Zeitung, Lemke stated: “The species crisis will be the next big battle,” and added: “It directly threatens our livelihoods.”
Lemke is a member of the environmentalist Green Party, a part of Germany’s coalition authorities alongside the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the Free Democrats (FDP).
Biodiversity as necessary as local weather
Climate change is among the key challenges the brand new authorities needs to deal with.
Lemke burdened that defending biodiversity and the local weather weren’t mutually unique and have been points that wanted to be tackled in tandem.
“This is not a matter of working against each other, but of working together. And as with climate protection, biodiversity has a lot to do with our production methods, lifestyles and consumption patterns. Which brings us back to the consumer,” Lemke identified.
The minister stated that safety of local weather and nature might occur by storing carbon in ecosystems.
“We will renaturalise peatlands, create more natural forests, store more water — as a precaution against droughts — and thus protect and strengthen biodiversity,” she informed the German publication.
Lemke stated {that a} key consideration was not letting one concern trump the opposite.
According to international conservation NGO the World Wildlife Fund, solely 23% of species and 16% of habitats below the EU Nature Directives are in good well being. These directives are biodiversity insurance policies designed to guard or restore sure species and habitats.
The WWF says habitat loss and fragmentation, unsustainable agriculture and local weather change are main drivers of biodiversity loss within the EU.
According to EU figures greater than 1600 species out of over 15,000 are threatened with extinction. Most of the endangered species are are marine creatures.
Half of Europe’s bushes are deemed to be in danger, and a fifth of amphibians and reptiles are endangered.
Finding steadiness
Renewable vitality, particularly wind farms are seen as being important options of the brand new authorities’s plans.
Currently wind energy accounts for practically a 3rd of the nation’s energy era, however there have been considerations raised about its affect on the setting, particularly, chicken species, though this pales in significance to visitors and farming.
Glass-covered buildings as an example, kill about 1,000 occasions extra birds (108 million) annually than wind farms. Around 700 occasions extra (70 million) die in collisions with automobiles, vehicles and trains.
The minister identified that one concern shouldn’t take priority or cancel one other one out, and proposed an answer pushed method.
“We also know that industrial agriculture is the greatest threat to biodiversity. But no one would say: Then we won’t do any more agriculture. That’s how it has to be with the expansion of renewables. We are obliged to find solutions.”
Lemke acknowledged that battle might happen in some cases, however in her opinion it was not one thing to be scared of.
“Of course there can be conflicts. At the same time, we have long since reached the point where the very foundations of economic activity are threatened by ecological crises. The task of a federal government is to protect the natural foundations of life and people. Balancing this is the core essence of politics. That doesn’t scare me.”