Latest / How To Protect The Ocean / The 2024 Living Planet Report: Biodiversity Is Down By 73%
Transcript
- 0:00You may or may not have heard of a report that's been out by WWF and
- 0:03the London Zoological Society. It's called the 2024 Living
- 0:07Planet Report, A System in Peril. You've probably heard about it. Biodiversity is
- 0:10down to 73% over the last 50 years. Obviously not
- 0:13good, but you're probably also wondering is like, why should I care about biodiversity? What
- 0:17does it really bring to me? We're going to talk about the report, why
- 0:21it's important to you. why you should care about biodiversity and
- 0:24what we need to do better as scientists and conservationists to
- 0:27make sure that you do care and you know why you should care about biodiversity.
- 0:31We're gonna talk about that on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Let's
- 0:35start the show. Hey
- 0:40everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the how to protect the ocean podcast. I'm
- 0:44your host Andrew Lewin, and this is a podcast where you find out what's happening with the
- 0:47ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for
- 0:50a better ocean by taking action. If this is your first time
- 0:53here, or your second, or your third, or your 25th, or your 1600s, it
- 0:57doesn't matter. Here is where you find out all about the ocean. I
- 1:01am a resource for you. I have a I have a podcast, I have a website, I have
- 1:04all these different types of social media, we have videos on YouTube, and
- 1:08you can get all of that at www.speakupforblue.com. You
- 1:12can also sign up to our newsletter at speakupforblue.com forward slash
- 1:16newsletter and get information about the ocean to your
- 1:19inbox Monday to Friday. You get at least three
- 1:24news articles, you'll get at least three job advertisements if
- 1:27you decide to have a career in marine biology. and you'll get updates on
- 1:30the podcast videos or whatever we release to help you understand the
- 1:34ocean and help you live for a better ocean. Today we're talking about biodiversity
- 1:37and you're probably wondering, Andrew, why the heck Do I have to worry about biodiversity?
- 1:41Why do I care? Well, there's a report out that says, hey, you know what? A lot
- 1:44of people don't care because over the last 50 years from 1970 to
- 1:492020, there has been at least a drop into 73% of
- 1:53species. Just to go into some of the details further,
- 1:58we've seen the decline in Latin America by 95% and Africa by 76%. Latin
- 2:03America, I believe, includes the Caribbean. The
- 2:07report highlights the tipping points for ecosystems like the Amazon and coral
- 2:10reefs that are fast approaching. And to reverse trends, the
- 2:13report calls for transformative actions in food, energy,
- 2:18and financial systems, and enhanced conservation efforts while
- 2:21supporting indigenous and local community roles. That's
- 2:24fine and dandy. That all sounds great. But why the heck aren't
- 2:28we doing it? This is the problem that we've seen a
- 2:31number of times. And to be honest, I've discussed it with a lot of
- 2:34other biologists, a lot of other conservationists, ocean, land,
- 2:38freshwater. It's all up for
- 2:41grabs. We've seen a lot of the problems in you
- 2:45know, tons of places, right? And
- 2:49it's all over the world. You know, this one reports, you know, Latin America and
- 2:52Africa seem to be the top, but it's everywhere. And we've
- 2:55seen decreases in freshwater species by 85%, terrestrial species by 69%, and marine
- 2:59species by 56%. That's
- 3:03a lot. Those are a lot of species where we probably don't know a lot about, but
- 3:07they're actually going extinct or they're getting a
- 3:10drop in those. And we talk about it on this podcast,
- 3:13right? We talk about the northern right whale. We talk about manatees. We
- 3:17talk about a lot of these different species that are either going extinct or
- 3:20are in danger of going extinct, right?
- 3:24They're on the Endangered Species Act or the Species at Risk Act, depending on
- 3:27what country you're in. Right. We've seen the decline. We've seen
- 3:30how we treat our oceans. We've seen how we develop along the coastline in
- 3:34various places, whether it be in North America, whether it be in Europe, whether it
- 3:38be in Africa, whether it be in Latin America, whether it be in the Caribbean. And we destroy
- 3:41all these beautiful places, natural places to put in what
- 3:44we think are tourist areas. Right. We see these resorts that are just
- 3:48gorgeous resorts, but they've been put in place of a
- 3:51natural area that have mangroves and seagrasses and all that kind of stuff.
- 3:55And we just ignore it. We just don't care about
- 3:59biodiversity. As a species, we don't talk about biodiversity. We
- 4:03talk about coral reefs. We talk about the Amazon forest. And
- 4:06we know that there's a lot of diversity of species that are being affected by
- 4:09those areas. And these are iconic areas. These are areas
- 4:13where we need to focus on. And we need to say, hey,
- 4:16if we don't protect these habitats,
- 4:20these wonderful ecosystems, we are going to we're
- 4:25gonna be in for it. And we are starting to be in for it, because we're starting to see
- 4:28a decline of these species, of these habitats, these
- 4:31ecosystems, whatever that might be. And that's a
- 4:35problem. That's a huge problem for
- 4:38us as human species. But again, we don't care
- 4:42about these systems. We don't care about biodiversity, because
- 4:46there's no connection. When we say biodiversity, when we say, hey, you have
- 4:49to protect everything. You know, first I want to talk
- 4:52about biodiversity. We're going to find out what that is. Because biodiversity is
- 4:56something that is so important to every
- 4:59single realm, whether it be freshwater, whether it be land, whether
- 5:03it be the marine realm. It's important to keep everything
- 5:07stabilized. So biodiversity is basically protecting all things so
- 5:10that we maintain stability in our systems. When you
- 5:14take out something from a healthy, biodiverse system,
- 5:18if an animal goes extinct from that system, right? So
- 5:21say you're in a coral reef and you have a particular species
- 5:25of parrotfish that goes extinct or is extirpated from
- 5:28that system, right? It doesn't mean it's extinct from the world, it's
- 5:31just extirpated, just gone from that area, from that one particular area.
- 5:35You'll have other parrotfish that are around that area so
- 5:39that it could still have the same function as those parrotfish, right?
- 5:42The ones that just left because you have different species of parrotfish because you
- 5:45will have this healthy biodiverse area. So you have these
- 5:48functional species that help habitats. Parrotfish will
- 5:52eat and eat algae off of coral. Sometimes they take a little bit
- 5:55of the coral with them, but it allows that coral to regenerate and
- 5:59it allows the algae to get off that coral. So it maintains a
- 6:03healthy coral. Without parrotfish or other fish that
- 6:06eat algae off of corals, the corals wouldn't get
- 6:10pruned of algae. And if you have a system where climate change is
- 6:13affecting it, the waters are getting hotter, the sun is
- 6:16on it longer, you start to get algae. right?
- 6:20You start to get nutrients that are going into the system, algae
- 6:23growth starts to proliferate. And then they outgrow the
- 6:27corals because they grow so fast. The corals need sunlight, they get suffocated. Without
- 6:30that sunlight, and then the coral, the reef just grows over,
- 6:34or the algae just grows over the reef. The reef starts to dissipate,
- 6:37and if you don't have those algae eaters, not all the time, but if you don't have those
- 6:41algae eaters, and you have other effects, accumulative, that are on this, like
- 6:44bad water quality, and climate change, and heating of
- 6:48the water, then you start to get this system that proliferates into
- 6:52a mess of algae. and you lose that biodiversity because
- 6:55you lose the coral reefs because it just spreads all across and
- 6:59all these fish are gone because they don't want to be around an area where
- 7:02they can't hide, they can't feed off of the corals, they can't feed
- 7:06on other animals that are helping the corals. It's just, it becomes a
- 7:09nightmare, right? And that's what happens a lot of times in the ocean. The
- 7:12reefs die either from overheating or bleaching or
- 7:16they die from nutrient overgrowth or algae overgrowth
- 7:21because of excess nutrients in the water and hotter water. And
- 7:24we start to see all this area that's so biodiverse, it
- 7:29just gets dissipated, right? It just gets destroyed. And then you
- 7:32have other systems such as seagrass and mangrove forests that probably have
- 7:35more biodiversity than coral reefs, but they
- 7:39are not as appealing. They're not as nice. When people see seagrass in
- 7:43the water and they're along like a shoreline, say, of a resort or
- 7:46a hotel, they're like, oh, that's gross, there's seaweed in there. But this seagrass plays
- 7:50a really important role in making sure that the species
- 7:53can hide and they can grow as a nursery habitat, you
- 7:57know, so that they can go out to the coral reef or they can go out into other systems and
- 8:01they can do their function. But without that habitat to
- 8:04help them hide and help them feed on other animals, that'll make them grow
- 8:07bigger and get stronger. Without that habitat there,
- 8:11those animals are gone. They're not going to be found there. And
- 8:14there's nothing going to be in those areas. So by taking out seagrass habitats,
- 8:18you take out the biodiversity. Same thing with mangroves. Mangroves
- 8:22are home to a lot of small fish and a lot of small invertebrates that
- 8:26use that area as a nursing area, a nursery area. And
- 8:29they just proliferate in there. They get bigger. They go to
- 8:32different areas. And that's just the system of life. That's just in
- 8:35the ocean. We're not talking about fresh water. We're not talking about land. because that's
- 8:38not what we cover in this podcast, but that's happening all over the place.
- 8:42We see the destruction of habitats for one reason or another. Whether
- 8:45it's indirectly or directly caused by human beings. And then we
- 8:49see a change in the system because the diversity goes down because there's
- 8:53been so many impacts. And then that system changes to the point where
- 8:56it's just a tipping point and it just can't be reversed. But
- 8:59if you have a biodiverse area where you have a lot of different species that
- 9:03do the same function, but one of those species gets extirpated for
- 9:06whatever reason that might be. That's just natural, you know, evolution. Those
- 9:10other functional species will be able to keep that habitat up,
- 9:15right? But as I explain this to you, I'm probably losing some of you,
- 9:18where you're just like, oh, yeah, like nobody's going to believe this. My mother, my grandmother, my
- 9:21grandfather, they're just my niece and nephew. They may not
- 9:25care about biodiversity because they don't see that
- 9:28impact. And to be honest, I've been racking my brain. I'll
- 9:32be like, how do we get people to care about
- 9:37biodiversity. How does that work? I
- 9:40don't get it. Because when we talk about biodiversity, we're not
- 9:43talking about one specific species. If I talk about a manatee, and
- 9:47I say, we need to protect the manatees, that's all great. When I was in
- 9:50school, we used to talk about the umbrella species, whales, marine
- 9:54mammals, dolphins, sometimes even sharks as
- 9:58a fish, a cartilaginous fish, elasmobranchs, where we talk about
- 10:02these fish species and marine mammal species as
- 10:05this sort of icon. Right? People love it. Same as sea turtles. People
- 10:09love it and they want to protect that one individual species. Right?
- 10:13Northern right whale, humpback whale, you know, common dolphins,
- 10:17spinner dolphins, orcas, might be
- 10:21like a great white shark, might be sea lions. You
- 10:24just never know. People connect with a lot of different animals. And
- 10:28those animals become an important conservation sort of
- 10:31iconic piece. And we call it the umbrella species because
- 10:35if you protect like a great white shark, for instance, like
- 10:38they did in California, if you protect great white sharks that
- 10:41were endangered at one point, You have to protect what they
- 10:45eat. They eat sea lions on the California coast. So you have to protect
- 10:49sea lions. So you see this endangered great white shark that people loved
- 10:53to hate at some point or were scared enough because of the movie Jaws. But
- 10:56they realized that those species started to go down. People were killing
- 11:00them. And that population needs to stabilize and
- 11:03grow. So how do we do that? Well, people realized that they were killing the
- 11:06sea lions off. Right? Sea lions were being killed off. Also, the
- 11:10sea lion's food, the sardines and so forth, with smaller
- 11:13fish, were getting eaten as well. Or not only eaten, but overfished. So
- 11:17what did they do? They came out with pieces of legislation, three
- 11:21pieces of legislation that would protect all three levels in
- 11:25that food web. So they protected the fish with the Magnuson-Stevenson Act
- 11:28in the US in the 1970s. Then they protected the sea
- 11:31lions with the Marine Mammal Protection Act in in the 1970s, and then they
- 11:35protected the great white shark as an endangered species, as
- 11:39part of the Endangered Species Act, and I don't know when that was installed. I'm
- 11:42going to say the 1970s, but I don't know if that's true. But regardless, all
- 11:46those pieces were saved, part of that food web, right?
- 11:51What happens? The fish start to come back, the sea lion population started
- 11:55to grow, and the great white shark population grew. And now, it's grown
- 11:58so much that we found that it's a nursery habit in Southern California for
- 12:01great white sharks, and that they're starting to spread around
- 12:05more all the way up north into San Francisco area, right?
- 12:09Oakland area, and in the Bay Area, Monterey Bay, and then even further
- 12:13north to Oregon. So now, like
- 12:16off the coast of Oregon, so we're starting to see this growth of a species in the
- 12:191970s that was actually found to be endangered, and we protected
- 12:23other species. We protected the biodiversity of
- 12:26that system so that we can see one species, this one
- 12:30iconic species, the umbrella species, grow. And that's wonderful.
- 12:33But the problem is, is that sometimes when you protect one species,
- 12:37you affect another or you don't, you don't affect a lot of the other species, right?
- 12:42So by protecting the sea lions population
- 12:46and protecting the sardine population. Well, now other populations
- 12:50were ignored. Maybe that didn't really help. So then we started to move
- 12:53towards a habitat approach. Let's protect the habitats, not just
- 12:56the individual species. That still needs to be protected. That's one
- 13:00tool in the conservation toolbox. But then we need to
- 13:03protect the habitat. Right? Or a number of
- 13:06different habitats. So we started to say, all right, let's protect coral reefs. But we can't just
- 13:09protect coral reefs because coral reefs are affected by the
- 13:13number and the system that has like
- 13:16a piece of seagrass, right? A patch of seagrass or even
- 13:20mangroves or both. So now we know that these habitats are connected.
- 13:23So we started to say, let's look at the ecosystem level. a number of different habitats
- 13:27that have a different set of species or the same set of species at different life
- 13:31cycles that can maintain an entire ecosystem, that collective
- 13:35of habitats and communities, right? So that's a
- 13:38good piece. That's when we start to bring in protected areas and marine protected areas.
- 13:42And so we started to protect that. That not only protects from fisheries, right,
- 13:46making sure that fisheries isn't overfished, but it also protects biodiversity,
- 13:50right? We protect the stability of the system. And
- 13:54then we realized when you protect biodiversity, you protect that stability of
- 13:57the system, a lot of those habitats, seagrass habitats, mangrove
- 14:00habitats, coral reef habitats, have a security level that
- 14:04help the coastline maintain that
- 14:09energy dissipation of big waves that come in. So
- 14:13in 2004, a large tsunami in the Indian Ocean affected
- 14:17Africa, South Asia, and a lot of Southeast Asia islands.
- 14:21It killed a lot of people. It was very devastating. It was around Christmas time.
- 14:25And when they started to do studies after to see how
- 14:28different areas were impacted or not impacted as much, they found
- 14:32that the areas that weren't as impacted by the energy of
- 14:35the wave, the wave coming in, the big tsunami coming in, they
- 14:39realized that they had a lot of their natural systems, mangroves, seagrasses,
- 14:43coral reefs, intact. So areas that had those systems, either
- 14:46a combination of all three or a combination of two or even one, had
- 14:50less damage and less deaths to their villages and
- 14:53to the areas that were affected by the tsunami than
- 14:57those that had them removed for either aquaculture or
- 15:01they were just removed because they weren't taken care of or there was development or anything like
- 15:04that. That really started to light
- 15:08the light bulb, let's just say, and say, hey, you know what? We
- 15:12need to protect these areas. They're not only good for biodiversity, they're
- 15:16only good for fishing and feeding people. Because a lot of people depend
- 15:20on the ocean for diverse fish and artisanal fishing
- 15:23and being sure local people can eat the fish and sell the fish so they can support
- 15:27their families. That happens more often than we think. I think
- 15:30me living in North America, I talk to a lot of people who
- 15:34are like, we should stop fishing. But more often than not, most
- 15:37of the people in the world depend on some sort of
- 15:40seafood to sustain their protein that they need for
- 15:44their lives in general. So we need biodiversity to
- 15:48help with that and help support fisheries, local fisheries, as
- 15:52well as the protection, that security. But again,
- 15:56how do we get people to really care about biodiversity? You
- 16:00don't see it on the news. You don't hear it on the podcast. You don't hear
- 16:03it on sort of social media other than people like
- 16:07a friend of mine, Carissa Cabrera, who I just saw
- 16:10a TikTok where she's talking about biodiversity. And I even mentioned, I
- 16:14put a comment on there, I'm like, how do we get people interested? on biodiversity, because
- 16:18every time I talk about somebody, I can see the eyes glaze over. And
- 16:22I can't see your eyes glazing over, but maybe it is. Maybe it's not.
- 16:25I don't know. It's really difficult. So I asked some people
- 16:29around, and I even asked around. So
- 16:38I really got to think about, how do we get people interested.
- 16:43And I wrote down some notes that I'm going to talk about now. The first thing
- 16:46is get that personal connection into play, right?
- 16:50Demonstrate how biodiversity plays a role and affects the
- 16:54daily life of local communities. You might be
- 16:57in a local community, you know, around the ocean,
- 17:01right? You might be along a coastline. You might be along a
- 17:05wildlife area or a naturalized area. You might be
- 17:08around a lake. And when you start to personalize
- 17:12that, you start to say, hey, that lake that you love so much being on. To
- 17:18stay that way, to make sure that you look on the coastline and
- 17:22you see, hey, I like the look of this. I
- 17:25like having my house near it. I like walking by it. I
- 17:28like going to the beach. I like having a cottage by it. I
- 17:32like looking out to lakes. I like looking out on rivers.
- 17:36I like the natural areas, the oceans. Make it personal. Make
- 17:40it the reason why you love it so much. And
- 17:44that's not the only time that's used. I remember working with
- 17:47Environment Canada. I was doing a secondment when I was at Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
- 17:51I was working for Environment Canada. We were working on the – I was part
- 17:54of just a small part of working on the binational Great Lakes
- 17:57Water Quality Agreement. And the reason why this agreement was
- 18:01coming in is some of the people in the upper management were like, How
- 18:04do we get people to care about the Great Lakes? Like, how do
- 18:08we get people to care about the health? Like, what do they actually care about? And
- 18:11a lot of it was people wanted to just stand along the coastline
- 18:15and look out onto a lake and be like, I love this area.
- 18:18I want to see it healthy. So they don't want to see green. They
- 18:22don't want to smell something bad. They don't want to see like, oh,
- 18:25that's crazy polluted. Like, there's a lot of people that I know that will
- 18:28not step in Lake Ontario in certain spots because it's
- 18:31so gross. reputation goes around
- 18:35and people start to think about it in other spots that it's actually clean and
- 18:38they refuse to go in it and they start to talk about that then it gets that reputation of
- 18:43it being a dirty lake but it's not a dirty lake. I mean there are certain spots that
- 18:46are not great but there are other spots that you can enjoy Lake Ontario, you
- 18:49can enjoy Lake Erie, you can enjoy Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake
- 18:52Huron, you know, Georgian Bay. All these areas are beautiful, but
- 18:57it gets this reputation and it takes away that connection because people don't
- 19:00want to go close to the shores as they usually do,
- 19:04right? Or as they would like to because they hear this reputation. So
- 19:08having that personal connection and demonstrating how that personal connection will
- 19:11play a role in how biodiversity plays a role in protecting that
- 19:14personal connection, I think is really great. Education and
- 19:17awareness is the second thing. So sharing stories and facts through
- 19:21engaging media and community outreach. So this
- 19:24is where you get into the, like, on the ground kind
- 19:28of education. You talk to students, you talk to kids,
- 19:31you talk to adults, you get them in and around the ocean,
- 19:35you get them in and around the lake as community projects, not
- 19:38just cleaning up, but also enjoying the ocean. You
- 19:42know, Carissa put up a really cool post where
- 19:45it's just like, sometimes you just got to enjoy nature. And as conservationists, a lot
- 19:48of the times we talk about all the bad things
- 19:52about the ocean or all the bad things about nature, like happening to
- 19:55nature. Sometimes we forget that it's actually quite nice out there
- 19:59in certain spots, and we should enjoy it. Even though we
- 20:02talk about nature all the time, it's good to take a break every once
- 20:05in a while, get re-inspired by connecting to nature,
- 20:09but also enjoying its beauty and what it brings to us and the
- 20:12value it brings to us. It actually helps us with our mental
- 20:16health. Right. I think that's really important. So having that education, whereas
- 20:20bringing people to the coastline that are not normally exposed
- 20:24to the coastline is a really big deal. And a lot of people are
- 20:27stressing on programs or a lot of areas that are impoverished and
- 20:30they can't get to the coastline or they don't. get to go to the coastline often.
- 20:34There are programs that will bring people to the coastline so that they can see the
- 20:38value and the beauty and maybe try to go out there a little bit more often without
- 20:42these programs if they can. And so that's just not for
- 20:45impoverished or successful areas. Everybody
- 20:50needs to go out and connect to your coastline. And
- 20:53then involvement and empowerment. So encourage actions like
- 20:56conservation projects and sustainable choices. So going and
- 21:00joining a network of conservationists like Surfrider. If
- 21:04there's one in your area or you want to start one up, you can talk to Surfrider. I'm
- 21:07sure they would be happy to see a network of volunteers start up.
- 21:11But encourage that going out and standing up
- 21:15for your local area, your local area of land,
- 21:19freshwater, marine. It doesn't matter. Whether
- 21:22you love the ocean and you're 50 miles away or 100 or 500 miles
- 21:26inland, it doesn't matter. If you love the ocean, protect everything that's
- 21:29around it because if you protect the interior, the exterior
- 21:33won't be as affected by a bad interior. All the
- 21:36oceans are connected by water at some point in time and so
- 21:40by protecting all that water, by protecting the land around that water, you're
- 21:44inevitably, indirectly protecting the ocean. And
- 21:47I think that is really important. So when
- 21:51you look at involvement empowerment, get involved, get out there and
- 21:55start doing something with the ocean, with
- 21:58the lakes, with a natural area, a park or something like
- 22:02that. Get out there and enjoy it. Get out there, serve on
- 22:05conservation projects, and volunteer with
- 22:08organizations where you can. If you have the time, if you're able
- 22:12to do it, do it with your family. It's a really great activity, and
- 22:16it's good for the planet. It has a lot of impact, and it makes you feel really,
- 22:20really great. And then, of course, the last one is economic incentives to
- 22:23showcase the financial benefits of preserving nature. So
- 22:26just think about all the wonderful things you love to do in and around the
- 22:30coastline or in and around nature. People make money off of
- 22:33that. People make money off of ecotourism. People make money off
- 22:36of tourism. You know, you're not going to get these big resorts going to
- 22:40island nations if people don't go,
- 22:43if people don't enjoy those areas, right? Now, there's
- 22:46protests you can do if a resort comes in and clears all
- 22:50the mangroves and clears all those areas of those natural areas
- 22:54so that you can have, you know, your fun as a tourist,
- 22:57but really be aware as an ecotourist to
- 23:01just be like, I don't want to go to these big resorts that
- 23:04destroy the area. I want to go to a resort or a
- 23:08hotel or I guess an organization or
- 23:11a company that not only has a place
- 23:16where I can enjoy the nature of that area, but also gives back
- 23:19and has an impact on the local community. So that when I go
- 23:23there, I'm not taking from the community. I'm actually giving back to the community.
- 23:26There are places that are out there and hopefully we'll have some of
- 23:30those on the podcast soon so that you can find
- 23:33out more about that. But that's an important role as
- 23:37a tourist. That's an important role as a human being to just like everything
- 23:40you do, you could have that impact. Might take a little bit more research.
- 23:44Hopefully in the future we'll be able to take away some of that research
- 23:48and make it a little easier for you to choose. But I think that's an important aspect
- 23:52of looking out for biodiversity, getting involved and
- 23:55taking action. So I'm hoping that this allows
- 23:59you to really enjoy the time
- 24:04and understand how important biodiversity
- 24:08is. This is a time where
- 24:11we need to make sure that biodiversity is
- 24:15protected. that we increase biodiversity in
- 24:19many areas and we stop messing around and stop delaying.
- 24:22We need to hold our politicians accountable. There
- 24:26are some major elections that are happening in the U.S. as well as Canada
- 24:29over the next year, in the U.S. even earlier, I think the next couple of
- 24:32weeks. It's important that we hold our politicians
- 24:36who have been in office for a long time and haven't done
- 24:40anything and refuse to do anything to help nature, but help protect
- 24:43biodiversity. but also put in people who are willing to
- 24:47put in the work, who are willing to make the hard decisions and are willing
- 24:50to go outside the norm to protect biodiversity. It's
- 24:53important to you. It's important to me. It's something that it's
- 24:57not a border issue. It's something that every country around the
- 25:00world needs to protect so that we can enjoy the
- 25:04system that we have now or the system that we've had. in the past, a
- 25:07nice stable system that works well for
- 25:10us, that provides us with food and provides us with security. So I hope
- 25:14that helps and, you know, my big call to action is
- 25:17get out, get connected with nature. And I'd love to hear your stories
- 25:21of you connecting with nature. You can put a comment in the
- 25:24comments below, or you can comment on Spotify, YouTube,
- 25:28or you can send me a DM on Instagram at howtoprotecttheocean. I
- 25:32would love to hear your stories and how you connect with
- 25:35nature and how you understand biodiversity is extremely important
- 25:39to our natural world. So that's it for me for
- 25:43today's episode. I want to thank you so much for taking the time and learning about biodiversity
- 25:46with me. And of course, if you know someone
- 25:50who you think would benefit from this, please feel free to
- 25:53share this episode. It's free to share. I really appreciate it.
- 25:56But I want to thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect
- 26:00the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. Have a great day. We'll talk to you