Energy Production and the Future of Biodiversity

Humans have fundamentally changed how energy flows through the global ecosystem, with consequences for ourselves and for other species.  The consequence for ourselves is that we are locked into having to produce enormous amounts of energy if we want to sustain the current human population, leave alone keeping up with the increase in population projected over the next three decades.   The consequence for other species is that how we produce our needed energy will largely determine whether biodiversity can be sustained at present levels, or whether the sixth mass extinction will be unavoidable.  Avoiding substantial loss of biodiversity will require holding the amount of "natural" energy we co-opt from other species (that is, energy produced from photosynthesis and measured as net primary productivity) at present values, and shifting energy-production away from fossil fuels fast enough to avoid the most ecologically-damaging effects of global climate disruption.

Speaker: Tony Barnosky, Stanford