How nature loss affects you

So, there’s a nature crisis. But, you might ask, what does that mean for me?

Quite a lot, actually. Ultimately, every single one of us depends on nature. 

Nature directly and indirectly sustains human life – from the food we eat to the fuel and medicines we need for survival, from clean air and water to a stable climate. Our economies, our societies, our civilizations: nature underpins them all.

So if nature is under threat, our health and livelihoods are at risk too.

Losing nature means a future where food supplies dwindle as crops fail because of pests and disease, or because there are no insects to pollinate them, or because soils have become lifeless. Where clean water is hard to come by. Where ecosystems no longer absorb our carbon emissions or protect us against extreme weather. 

Many people are already getting a taste of that future. In India, for example, millions of people in the city of Chennai have felt the effects of the destruction of the nearby coastal wetlands. Wetland ecosystems used to help prevent flooding by absorbing water and to recharge the city’s water supplies. But in the last few years, the city has been twice hit by severe flooding, and faced a prolonged drought where water had to be trucked in to meet people’s basic needs.

In California, the salmon industry – which supports thousands of jobs and contributes hundreds of millions of dollars to the economy – is struggling for survival. Chinook salmon populations in the Sacramento River have fallen by 80% since the 1970s as dams have cut the migratory fish off from their traditional spawning grounds, while falling water levels and rising temperatures exacerbate the problem. In early 2024, the federal government allocated US$20.6 million in fishery disaster relief funding for communities affected.


Nature’s contributions to people

Scientists use terms including “ecosystem services” and “nature’s contributions to people” to describe the many benefits we receive from the natural world – which we often take for granted. Here’s just a few of the many examples:

Valuing nature

While it’s impossible to put a price on nature, we can get some idea of how much nature’s contributions to people are worth to our economy. According to IUCN, the World Conservation Union, the monetary value of goods and services provided by ecosystems amounts to an estimated US$33 trillion per year. 

Another estimate says that over half of global GDP (55%) – or an estimated US$58 trillion – is moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services. No wonder that nature loss and other environmental risks, including climate change and water scarcity, are consistently ranked among the biggest threats to the global economy. 

We couldn't buy the services that we take from nature even if we wanted to. Yet nature provides it all free of charge.

She only asks that we look after her in return.