Millennium Ecosystem Assessment gap analysis

It’s easy to notice that it gets hotter and drier when you cut down a
forest. Yet so often we rationalize / turn this simple truth into
something more abstract. So more often it is said that cutting down
the forest is ok and sustainable and carbon neutral. It’s then
explained that that real cause of increased heat and dryness is
actually caused by climate change? What’s the difference? –Editor,
Forest Policy Research

A worldwide 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment enlisted hundreds of
scientists to develop a view of ecosystems through the lens of
services those ecosystems provide humanity, said Thomas Dietz,
director of the MSU Environmental Science and Policy Program and
professor in sociology and crop and soil sciences. Among the biggest
knowledge gaps Dietz and colleagues found, he said, is “really
thinking seriously about the interaction between humans and
ecosystems, back and forth. How are we changing ecosystems and how are
ecosystems affecting us?”

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The MEA found about 60 percent of ecosystem services supporting life –
including fresh water, fisheries, clean air, pests and climate – are
being degraded or used unsustainably. The MEA projected continued
deterioration at current rates. But drawing conclusions is still
limited by what researchers call discipline-bound approaches that
don’t fully describe the range of the Earth’s dynamic and complex
biophysical and social systems. “In only a few cases are the abilities
of ecosystems to provide human well-being holding steady, and in
almost every case we’re seeing declines in ecosystems underpinning
human well-being,” said Dietz, who was involved in the original MEA.
Many view that assessment as a baseline for analyzing climate change,
Dietz said, although that was not the purpose of the report. He and
fellow scientists are set to publish what amounts to a post-MEA gap
analysis in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. “The
conclusion that things are getting worse in general comes out of the
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment,” he said. “Our job was to say ‘OK,
what science do we need to do?'”

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