The new German environmental minister, Steffi Lemke, has pitched her voice to warn that the subsequent global challenge will be what she names the “species crisis.”
Talking to German publication Süddeutsche Zeitung, Lemke said: “The species crisis will be the next big battle,” and added: “It directly threatens our livelihoods.”
Lemke is a fellow of the environmentalist Green Party, a fraction of Germany’s coalition government alongside the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the Free Democrats (FDP). She stressed the need of preserving biodiversity and the climate were not mutually undivided and were issues that required to be set to work 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 brought up.
KEY AREAS THAT NEED TO BE PONDERED UPON
According to the global protection NGO the World Wildlife Fund, only 23% of species and 16% of habitats under the EU Nature Directives are in a substantial state. These dicta are biodiversity strategies formulated to insure or rebuild certain species and habitats.
The WWF tells habitat damage and fragmentation, unsustainable agriculture and climate change are governing drivers of biodiversity loss in the EU.
According to EU illustrations, more than 1600 species out of over 15,000 are endangered with extinction. Most of the endangered species are marine creatures.
Half of Europe’s trees are supposed to be at risk, and a fifth of amphibians and reptiles are threatened
Presently, wind power accounts for approximately a third of the country’s power production, but there have been suspicions raised about its effect on the environment, in particular, bird species, although this dulls in importance to traffic and farming.
Glass-covered buildings, for example, kill about 1,000 times more birds (108 million) each year than wind farms. Around 700 times more (70 million) die in crashes with cars, trucks and trains.
ACKNOWLEDGING THE RIGHT SOLUTION
Lemke conceded that clash could occur in some instances, but in her viewpoint, it was not something to be worried about. “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 essence of politics. That doesn’t scare me.”