As the U.N.'s COP16 biodiversity summit wraps up in Cali, Colombia, delegates from over 190 nations gave dire warnings of "apocalyptic" loss of life and the possible extinction of humankind.
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00:00In Cali, Colombia, delegations from over 190 nations have convened for the U.N. Convention
00:09on Biodiversity, or COP16. They are here to address dwindling wildlife populations and
00:15habitat loss around the world. Delegates say the planetary ecosystem is under threat. And
00:21as Colombia's president puts it, this carries consequences of biblical proportions.
00:26We are beginning the time of human extinction. I don't think I'm exaggerating. It's not
00:35an apocalyptic vision, although what we are experiencing is worse than the apocalypse.
00:42The book of St. John, the last of the New Testament.
00:48Host nation Colombia, along with 20 other countries, launched a coalition seeking to
00:53make, quote, peace with nature. The coalition proposes radical and sweeping changes to
00:59how humans engage with nature and wants to mobilize all of society towards preserving
01:05the environment. Another goal is expanding protection and managed conservation of the
01:13Earth's land and sea area 30 percent by 2030, a goal known as 30 by 30, a major increase
01:21from the 18 percent of land and 8 percent of ocean currently under conservation.
01:51Every minute we throw a garbage truck of plastic waste into our oceans, rivers and lakes.
02:01Don't be mistaken. This is how you see an existential crisis.
02:10The coalition contains countries from North and South America, Europe and Africa, but
02:15none from Asia. Taiwan is not taking part in COP16. The country is excluded from United
02:21Nations bodies because of pressure from China. While the country isn't represented, a professor
02:27from National Taiwan University says the global situation is dire.
02:32Things aren't looking good for global insect biodiversity and the same applies to pretty
02:37much everything else. We definitely do have good data for vertebrates, mammals, birds,
02:42whales, amphibians, and it's looking pretty bad.
02:45How bad exactly? According to Professor Shalomi, the alarming prognoses given at COP16 are
02:54pretty on the mark, with up to 70 percent of vertebrate populations already gone.
02:59That's more than we should be having if this was your run of the mill extinction event.
03:04Things are disappearing really, really quickly. A lot of that is from, some of that is from
03:09hunting, collecting, but a big amount of that is sheer deforestation and habitat loss.
03:15As COP16 delegates debate how the plans and proposals will be implemented, there are questions
03:21if they'll be enough to prevent what officials describe as the possibility of our own extinction.
03:27Dolphine Chen and Jonathan Kaplan for Taiwan Plus.