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Michelle Reynolds is a wildlife research specialist for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Foundation.
A recent New York Times headline provides what might be the best summation of the biodiversity crisis: “Animals Are Running Out of Places to Live.” The world has lost half of its natural ecosystems, and wildlife populations have shrunk by an average of 68% since 1970. Why? As the Times article neatly puts it, “Humans are taking over too much of the planet, erasing what was there before.”
Although the UN’s biodiversity conference and the resulting global agreement to restore and protect 30% of the world’s land and ocean ecosystems by 2030 (known as “30×30”) are welcome steps forward, the general response has been “fingers crossed.” When it comes to international treaties regarding urgent environmental concerns, including the previous global biodiversity pact, our species has a spectacular record of not following through.
The good news is that we don’t have to wait and hope for other nations — or even our own government — to take action. Each of us, by virtue of being one of the 8 billion people on the planet, is partly responsible for taking up space formerly occupied by other animals, and each of us can have a role in ecosystem restoration.
Many environmental groups, university research centers, summit reports and members of Gen Z sound like the same broken record, but what they’re saying is true: The number one thing that any of us can do to stop wrecking the planet and save endangered species is to pivot away from animal agriculture.
A UN-backed report from the think tank Chatham House found that animal agriculture is the number one threat to 86% of the 28,000 species at risk of extinction. Farming animals and growing the crops to feed them requires massive amounts of land and produces a comparatively small amount of consumable calories.
This unsustainable practice fuels not only world hunger but also the destruction of ecosystems in the Amazon, the Himalayas, the Congo Basin, the Cerrado and other vulnerable places around the globe.
Eating plants directly, rather than feeding them to animals and then killing those animals for their flesh, would allow us to rewild much of that land, giving us a chance to meet the UN’s “30×30” goal. By embracing vegan foods instead of meat, eggs and dairy, we could feed our own growing masses and still leave space for the rest of the Earth’s inhabitants.
In addition to taking over natural habitats for agriculture, humans are razing more and more animal dwellings in order to build our own housing, so another vital thing that each of us can do for wildlife stems from a lesson we learned as young children: Share. Sure, most of us don’t want to turn our pantries or attics into chez petit animale, but they didn’t want us to turn their forest homes into subdivisions either.
As we force animals to compete for fewer and fewer resources, they may try to find food or protection inside our residences. When that happens, the least we can do — instead of subjecting them to painful deaths in glue traps or by poison — is to use live traps, humanely escort them back outside and then seal off potential entry points in order to prevent future encounters.
And we can make it a little easier for them to survive outside. Replacing hard-to-maintain grass areas with native plants and trees provides food sources and habitat. Using Earth-friendly lawn-care methods keeps dangerous chemicals out of the soil, water and plants that animals depend on. Keeping trash in tightly sealed containers prevents wildlife from getting stuck in or injured by it. We can easily assist turtles crossing the road and report injured animals to humane officials or wildlife rehabilitators. And we can be a little more understanding when birds nest and geese honk or when deer munch a few flowers or mice nibble a few morsels in our gardens. For every perceived conflict with wildlife, there’s a humane solution.
No one wants a world without wildlife. And if we take action now, we won’t have to live in one.
