A new paper reports published in Proceedings of the National Academies of Science (PNAS) on risks to human well-being and prosperity stemming from ongoing environmental degradation. In the paper, the authors document the many ways that nature provides benefits, from the production of material goods (fish, timber, medicines, etc.) to non-material benefits (recreation, learning, experience, etc.) and the benefits of ecological processes that regulate environmental conditions (water filtration, carbon sequestration, storm protection, etc.). The findings show global declines in most of nature’s contributions to people over the past 50 years. Negative impacts on people’s well-being are already occurring, including reductions in crop yields from declining pollinator populations and soil productivity and increased exposure to flooding and storms as coastal ecosystems are degraded. Uttam Babu Shrestha of GIIS co-authored this paper along with 14 researchers from various insitutions.

Full paper: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2010473117