Dr. Enric Sala Discusses Why We Need the Wild

the phone from the nation's capital on this Tuesday. Dr Salah, it is so nice to have you here with us. How are you. I'm great enjoying the hot summer of Washington, d C. Man, it's brutal. It is brutal. Tell us about this book, um, that you wrote and why you did it? Yeah, The Nature of Nature? He is my lost letter to the planet. I wanted to communicate what I have learned for the last thirty years conducting research

all around the world. I wanted to tell stories of how we figured out what happens when species of plants and animals and microps get together and self assemble in these wonderful ecosystems that we call forests, wetlands, cast land's, coral riffs, and why we need to preserve them for our own well being. But also I wanted to make the economic case that more protection of nature actually would

be beneficial to the global economy. We'll talk to us about that, because that is I mean, we are, after all Bloomberg Business Week, and that in addition to Carrol's and my own fascination and and really deep belief in in conservation, I think I can say pretty fairly I think we're both intrigued by the economic aspect of this. Break that down for us, talk some numbers and help us understand how you put numbers around this. Okay, So I was listening before joining. I was listening to the

prices of the stock and the percentages. So I'm going to do something similar. Uh, the natural world contributes with hundred and twenty five thrillion dollars in free services to the global economy every year. Right, So this is the value of the ecosystem services that the natural world provide for us. Now, only of the land and seven percent of the ocean are protected. Today, forests are being burned or a clear cut we are we have lost large twis in the ocean. The gloom, the doom and gloom

list is long. We are basically destroying our life support system. So what do we need to do. The science tells us that we need to protect at least thirty of the planet by if we are to avoid the extinction of a million species and the collapse of our life support system, and if we want nature to continue helping us to absure much of the carbon pollution that we expelled into the ammosphere and help us metiate climate change. Now the next question as well, Yeah, but how much

is it going to cost? While we released an economic study this this year that suggests that a system of protected areas covering thirty of the planet would cost in terms of operations and management costs hundred and forty billion dollars per year. That's by that's less than when the world spends today in video games. That's that's just a third of the government subsidies two activities than destroy nature just the third. So the money is there, public money

is there? We just use it for for the activities that destroy our life support system instead of preserving it. And one more thing is that in the United States, for example, for every dollar that the government invests in our national parks, that dollar generates ten dollars every year in economic output that goes to private through private pockets. So that's why we need to invest in nature. It's

it's a good business. Let's get back to our guest, Dr Enrique Sala, explorer and residence at National Geographic his book Out The Nature of Nature, Why We Need the Wild, and he's still with us on the phone in Washington, DC. Is also founder of Christine Sees. So, Dr Salah, I want to ask you. You know, I feel like we are chasing after so many different problems right now, but if we don't take care of the environment, none of those problems are going to matter, to be quite honest

with you. So how do we more successfully as a as a as a world make sure we're doing the right thing, especially when there's so much disconnect between countries and individuals. Look, we even in the US just can't kind of get it together and have one cohesive strategy when it comes to the virus. So how do we

as a globe really do this correctly? Yeah, I would think that this pandemics taught us once and for all that while we perceived that is this connection and politically there must be this connection, we are all connected too. Only one person in China to be infected by a virus coming from a wild animal to create an outbreak that then, thanks to our global life style, spread like

wildfire across the world. Right the health the well being of the richest country in the world, of the richest person in the world today is dependent on the health and the behavior of the poorest person, even in the poorest country. We are all connected. We tamper with nature on one side of the planet, and the pandemic has shown that the consequences are global. You know, this is not something that is going to happen to somebody in

the future like many people thought about climate change. That this is happening right now to everybody on the planet. So instead of having to respond to the next pandemic, we better invest in ridging the risk of the next pandemic. And the numbers are very clear what you would cost to prevent it's just a fraction of one percent of the global GDP one percent, less than one percent, even one percent, that would be a very cheap rent to

pay for the use of our planet. Right, So I know that now governments are worried about taking care of people in need and reviving the economy, but also we need to start thinking about the causes of the pandemic and how to protect nature so she can protect us. How can we review the risk of more viruses coming on our doorsteps? Are people listening? Are the folks in in power starting to to listen to this, because we have had a number of wake up calls here as

you're alluding to. But I wonder how discussions around climate fit into that. It's all related, right, you talked about all these different crisis. It's it's one and same crisis because the COVID pandemic originated because of our broken relationship with nature, and climate change only exacerbates the problem of loss of nature. It reduces the ability of nature to absorb much of our carbon pollution. And also it exacerbates that the problems with people with the respiratory problems once

they get the coronavirus. So so it's it's it's all related. And it seems that what the people who are against change. You know, some people are thinking, oh, we need to go back to normal. Well that's the worst thing we can do, because the pandemic has shown that the emperor has not closed. We have built our world, the global economy, not based on resilience, but based on growth, hyper leveraging, and that's not sustainable, that's not resilient. We cannot afford

another one of these. So we need to build back better like plants and animals, the self assembling ecosystems that are stable, that are resilient. We need to the same thing. That is a lot we can learn from nature, from how ecosystems form, so we can rebuild our human ecosystem in a way that these we don't work for the money,

but actually the money works for us. You know what you just said, um a few minutes ago about this whole idea of you know, we're also connected, and what happens to an individual in a in a bad either health situation where they're exposed to things you know, ultimately kind of exposes all of us. It reminds me of an expression my sister often says that you're only as happy as a parent as your least unhealthy child, and we're only healthy as global citizens as are least unhealthy

global citizen. Is so having said that are we at a point where we are overpopulated in Earth and that's part of the problem, or is it just our ways that's really the problems problem and that needs to be fixed. This is one of the big taboos that nobody wants to talk about, right the issue of um over population and you have two divided camps. What I can say without offending anyone, is that it is the per capita use. Right now, with the people we have on the planet,

we have enough resources to fit everybody today. We have enough resources to fit ten million people. The problem is that we are wasting a third of the food we produce from the farm and the boat to the table. And also we are hitting too much animal protein, which takes a lot of land, it takes a lot of fresh water, and it takes a lot of nature that if it were not dedicated to raise livestock, for example,

it will give many more benefits two people. So we could fuel our economy mostly with renewable energies, like some countries in Europe have shown, we could for the usually enough food for the Tamil people with a plant based valuet, eating more plants and less animals, and that would be good for our health, for the economy, and for the environment.

But you know, again, we have to fight against the special interest which are like the people who are trying to make as much more as possible at the casino of the Titanic after hitting the icebergs, right right, Well, we really appreciate the time you spent with us in congratulations on your book. Dr Enrique sala is Explorer in Residents, the coolest title that I have ever heard for National Geographic.

He is also the founder of Christine Sites. And the book is really an important one Carol and called the Nature of Nature, Why we need the wild and and really puts a lot in perspective. Here's one line. If we continue our way, soon the only large animals left on the planet will be us, our domesticated food and our pets. And the largest plant communities won't be the magnificent tropical emburial for us. But monocultures like the vast industrial crop lands that now make up the American Midwest

is a survivable future for humanity. And as we talk about, you know what the earth is doing right now, the way it is responding to us. We've got hurricanes bearing down. Uh, you know, We've got heat like we've never seen before, record setting temperatures last week in California there in Death Valley. So it's sending us a signal. I think that much is clear. You and I've talked about that, right, We've just you know, whether you want to get all woo

you know out there. But it does feel like Mother Earth is sending us a signal, especially the likelihood that we're going to have to be dealing with more and more viruses like this if we continue on this path that we have. Alright, happy note, Hey, everybody, have a great have an awesome time, Pour yourself a glass of wine, deal with whatever is coming next,