What is more important: biodiversity or the global climate?
Biodiversity encompasses the diversity of life in our fields, meadows, and forests, including a wide range of plants, animals, microorganisms, fungi, and ecosystems. It is fundamental to our environment and therefore to life on our planet.
Severe biodiversity loss could permanently threaten our food system. Swiss agricultural scientist Urs Niggli estimates the value of insect pollination at several hundred billion US dollars per year.
Added to this are various other ecosystem services that are essential for survival, such as the ability of soils to purify seeping water or to transform landscapes and forests into oases of recreation.
Globally, we have lost 80 percent of insects in the last 25 years. The causes of this are the many monocultures and the use of land for houses, road construction, and new factories, but also the increasing poisoning of agricultural land. We have too few hedges, flowering meadows, fallow land, and species-rich forests. They can survive drought much better than monocultures. The German magazine Der Spiegel therefore believes that preserving biodiversity is even more important than saving the global climate.
Actress Maria Furtwängler after producing a documentary on insect decline for German broadcaster ARD: “The climate crisis raises the question of how we as humans will continue to live. The biodiversity crisis raises the question of whether we as humans will continue to live… We know that around 75 percent of the food we obtain from crops depends on pollination by insects and that 95 percent of our diet depends on healthy soils.” (Hörzu, No. 39, 2024, page 9).
But we are losing the ground beneath our feet, mainly because of the prevailing chemical agriculture. What do our soils have to swallow with pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, and what are we swallowing along with them? Glyphosate is also everywhere, even though it is suspected of being carcinogenic. But Parkinson’s disease can also be caused by glyphosate. According to the latest research, there is more microplastic in our soil than in the oceans. Actor Hannes Jaenicke in his ZDF series “Im Einsatz für Erde” (Working for the Earth) said about soil: “We cannot afford a future without soil.”
Insects not only pollinate plants, they loosen the soil, dispose of excrement, and maintain soil fertility. In the EU, 60 percent of the soil is already unhealthy. The services that nature provides for all living beings are irreplaceable. The use of pesticides also damages biodiversity. Continuing with business as usual in agriculture will destroy agriculture in the long term.
The argument put forward by the conventional farming lobby that organic farming alone cannot feed the ten billion people who will soon be living on this planet means that our only alternative is starvation or poisoning. Homo sapiens should surely be able to find a way out: it will not work without reducing meat consumption. The tropical rainforest is particularly rich in species. Its clearing for animal feed for rich countries leads not only to negative climate effects but also to a dramatic loss of biodiversity.
Christian Wirth, founding director of the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research: “A species-rich meadow, where flowers bloom, bees buzz and birds chirp, is not only beautiful to look at and provides food for many insects that pollinate our crops, it also pumps three times more carbon into the soil and helps combat climate change. This is an important message for society and politics: sustainable management of ecosystems is worthwhile and pays off.“ When asked whether the biodiversity crisis can be overcome, Christian Wirth says: ”Like climate change, this problem will keep us on our toes – we won’t get rid of it. We need nature: for clean water, food, good air, for our mental and physical health. This is about preserving a life-support system. We have to solve the problem, whether we want to or not, and we will do so with our creativity.” (Süddeutsche Zeitung, October 1, 2024).
Because space on our planet is limited, there are fewer and fewer places and areas of untouched nature where animals and plants can develop and recover without human intervention. Monocultures are the opposite of diversity—they are less resilient. One example: after World War II, spruce forests were planted everywhere in Germany. But several extremely hot summers have killed entire spruce forests. Mixed forests, on the other hand, have coped better with the heat.
Sixty percent of native butterflies have already disappeared in Germany. Car drivers know this: 50 years ago, the windshield had to be cleaned of insect carcasses every time the car was filled up. Today, no gas station attendant asks about it anymore. Insects have been crawling, flying, and scuttling across our planet for 400 million years – long before the dinosaurs. They are the basis of all life. But today, these all-rounders are threatened with extinction.
To achieve a real turnaround, we must redouble our efforts to restore nature. Above all, however, we must learn to work with nature, not against it. This may also mean including ecological follow-up costs in economic reports. Above all, new biodiversity-based land use systems must be developed. Modern technologies can help here.
Sustainable agriculture is the guardian of biodiversity.
What everyone can do in their garden or on their balcony. The Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) has these five tips for creating refuges for insects:
- First: Plant a mix of smaller flowers and herbs.
- Second: Avoid artificial lighting, as half of all insects are nocturnal.
- Third: Avoid pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides.
- Fourth: Create nesting places.
- Fifth: Especially on smaller balconies, plant vertically, i.e., plant climbing and trailing plants on the façade. (Hörzu, No. 39, 2024, page 8)
Two positive developments for biodiversity in this country: There are now more mixed forests than at the end of the 20th century, and there is a move away from monoculture farming and more deadwood, which is good for biodiversity. (TAZ, October 1, 2024). Deadwood, which can be observed on any walk in the woods, is a valuable habitat for many species. It is therefore important that not every dead tree is cleared away immediately. The EU now also rewards measures that protect biodiversity more than it did in the past.
And: When a solar park is built on former farmland, the number and diversity of plants and animals increases significantly. More than 350 different plant species and a variety of bird, reptile, and insect species have been identified in open-space PV systems. “It’s amazing how much diversity develops in solar parks within such a short time. We were able to identify 30 different species of grasshoppers and 34 different species of butterflies in the installations. These are preliminary results, and we expect to document many more positive developments, for example with amphibians and birds,” said Dr. Tim Peschel. Robert Busch, managing director of bne (the Federal Association for New Energy Economy commissioned this study), summarized the preliminary results: “With PV systems on open spaces, we are creating a triad, because biodiverse solar parks combine species diversity, the energy transition, and agriculture.”
We should not play climate protection and biodiversity off against each other. Both a livable climate and biodiversity are important for all life on our planet. They are two sides of the same coin.
If farmers do it right, the energy transition can promote biodiversity. Photovoltaics and species protection do not have to be a contradiction. The Weesow-Willmersdorf solar park in Brandenburg was once used for intensive agriculture. Many species had disappeared. But today, birds are once again nesting among the 465,000 solar modules. A report commissioned by the solar operator, EnBW, states: “The area was previously used for intensive agriculture. Our mapping shows that the frequency of individual species, especially the skylark, has increased significantly with the solar park.” The skylark is classified as endangered on the Red List. Such large-scale installations play a crucial role in Germany’s energy transition. (Süddeutsche Zeitung, June 4, 2025). This plant is also a boon for species protection. The Federal Association for New Energy Economy counted 30 large solar parks. The surprising result: 385 plant species, 30 grasshopper species, 13 bat species, 36 butterfly species, and 32 breeding bird species were recorded. It’s bringing together what belongs together.
Source
Franz Alt 2025 | Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
