*本文為回應11/09李玲玲教授<氣候變遷與生物多樣性>專題演講，學生短評文章之精選。已獲作者之授權，刊登於本中心網站。

Who’s Afraid of Thinner Polar Bears? The Correlation Between Biodiversity and Climate Change

Seminar on Global Environmental Policy and Law

Semester 98-1

Class Reflection Paper

李崇菱 Tsung Ling Lee[1]

R95A41013

If the beloved and once-chubby bears have the right to sue, they would collectively sue the egocentric human for destroying their habitat and causing them to involuntarily to loss weight. Fortunately, we do not live in a “Bee” world where creatures other than Homo sapiens possess the right to sue, otherwise, the compensation for bears would be inestimable where human are collectively responsible; the price to pay for their apparent weight loss would enslave the species Homo sapiens.

Polar Biodiversity

Nevertheless, the noticeable weight loss of polar bears illuminates some serious concerns and by no means should be taken lightly. An average female polar bear now weights around 225 kilograms, which is 25% less than two decades ago.[2] Moreover, a 15 percent drop in birth rates among bears has been observed.[3] One concrete fact thus points out the alarming reality; bears are thinner and are less in number, and this is mere the tip of iceberg, as Arctic biodiversity is more than just polar bears. The observable changes in bears signal the impacts of climate changes in the Arctic region, where it is already warming 2-5 times faster then the global average[4], and this will have grave repercussions for all other global regions and biodiversity through changes in the hydrological cycle, the weather cycle, and the carbon cycle to name a few.

If the charismatic Arctic bears continue to decline in number and weight, as the largest predator on earth, their disappearance would bring a catastrophic disruption to the delicately balanced Arctic ecosystem, as these celerity bears feed mainly on ringed and bearded seals, scavenge on carcasses of beluga whales, walruses, narwhals, and bowhead whales.[5] The decreasing number of bears at the top predatory level means that the seals which the bears feed on, could increase in population and intensify food competitions amongst Arctic species down the food chain. Hence the disappearance of polar bears would initiate a formidable cascading effect on the Arctic interlinked food chain, and in term, also affect the human system; because the uncertainty in fishery production would impact the employment and income source of human population.  

Migratory species

Beside the trepidation about Arctic ecosystem disturbance, migratory species, which are dependent on breeding and feeding grounds in the Arctic, are also affected by climate change. Though the warmer Arctic may help some bird species to obtain food and thus increase their species' survival rates, nevertheless, for others, climate change has impacted on their migration routes, disrupted food sources, and increase their vulnerability to diseases as they might be force to migrate to non-traditional areas[6]. The changes in migratory behaviours are of particular concern, mainly because the changes in behaviours are the result of human-induced climate change.

In other word, if climate change continues and intensifies at the current predicted speed, it would pose a grave concern for global biodiversity because new species would evolve as a result of the warmer climate. At the same time, for those species that are unable to adjust to the warmer climate, would simply disappear and extinct[7]. The current richness of species and the wealth of genetic pool would be depleted as the result of human-induced global warming, where the selection criterion for species survival would be solely dependent on its ability to adjust to extreme weather. Species that evolve as to adopt the extreme weather would exhibit similar characteristics, and the richness of current biodiversity would simply be depleted. This is even more problematic and profound because human other than nature itself induced this selection criterion, where the human intervention acts against the natural progression as in Darwin's evolution theory. The evolution of new species would be the result of an indirect and artificial selection process, accelerated by industrialisation so celebrated by capitalist prosperity. More paradoxically, human might not even endure the extreme weather as a selection process, as recent wave of sporadic weather anomalies around the world have exposed the vulnerability of human populations.  

Additionally, as the climate deteriorates and become even more unpredictable around the world, how state actors in their implementation of policies and laws that have contemplated and adjust their policies to reflect the climate change factor, would determine the extent of their future success, both in terms of domestic environmental protection as well as domestic economy prosperity. Though climate change is quintessentially a trans-boundary issue and demands global strategy and effective global governance to halt the warming effect, nevertheless, how individual state-actor response to the change and take preparatory steps through its policy implementation would largely determine the outcome of their future success. The more progressive and active role a state-actor invests in its national environmental policies through the allocations of research funds, investments in education, skills, and technology know-how currently, would transcribe to invaluable asset tomorrow. This is because climate change alters the competition conditions at international level, and it might present itself as opportunity alter the current disparity between North and South, despite the some traditional thinking that climate change may aggregate the divide.

Biodiversity and the potential as International Bargaining Chip

The world richest wonders often are not found in the industrialised nations, but rather in developing or un-developed nations. The richness of nature and its potential uses have been long neglected since the inception of industrialization until recently. Biodiversity offers inspiration for biotechnologies, and is most evident in the pharmaceutical sector, where the earth flora and fauna provide the basis for at least fifty percent of world pharmaceuticals[8]. The high levels of biodiversity mostly found in less industrialised nations have been neglected and overlook as a potential to turn around the North and South Divide, as pharmaceutical extractions with exclusive reliance on specific plant varieties that only grow in specific geographical locations is itself an opportunity for less developed nations. This is because it more or less equalise the negotiation power at the international field, where industrialised nations with greater economic and technological resources, are in need of genetic data, which only can be found in location-specific plants in the developing countries. This consequently increases the bargaining chip for which the developing countries may negotiate with their technology-advanced counterparts, through regulatory framework such as the Convention Biological Diversity (CBD).

For example, Taiwan as an island nation and its unique geographical location means Taiwan possesses extraordinarily abundant biodiversity resources and home to numerous endemic species. Till recently, the government had not taken an active step in documenting and cataloguing the rich biodiversity and unique ecosystem in Taiwan[9]. Without a solid domestic regulatory framework that regulates and protects the accesses and usages of these highly patentable genetic materials encrypted in plants, the island’s rich and unique flora are subject to exploitations from foreign pharmaceutical and research institutions.

Biodiversity is an extraordinary gift from nature, because a high level of biodiversity essentially is a rich genetic database for which biotechnologies are dependent on, and this distinguishes biotechnology industry from other traditional industries such as steels and manufacture industries, because biodiversity is location specific, whereas steels and manufacture industries are not. Taiwan's post-war heavy industrial expansion like steels manufacturing though accelerated Taiwan’s economic boom in the past, but it also scarified and resulted in some irreversible ecological damages. In retrospective, government’s policies in the last millennium much reflected how a state actor in implementing its domestic economic policies would affect the state of play in the future. Though, the change of industrial structure and the trajectory of biotech bloom in the last two decades was not foreseeable by the government, nevertheless, Taiwan’s case demonstrates the importance of early policy implementation and the need for capability building through regulatory framework, to prepare a state actor to step ahead in the age of globalization. 

Nevertheless, in terms of the economical values brought about by biodiversity, each plant variety unique to Taiwan represents unlimited opportunities because investment in conservation means the preservation of valuable and patentable local genetic resources, which can be capitalised when conducting international negotiations. This means Taiwan has the potential to transcend the international political stalemate, even though Taiwan is not a signatory to the CBD, where the objective is "to ensure conservation of biological diversity, and sustainable use of its components; and to promote a fair and equitable sharing as an essential element of biodiversity”. Nonetheless the CBD objective and the principle of mutual benefit can serve as an inspiration for Taiwan as a feasible approach to gain new technologies.

Taiwan voluntarily abide and observe the CBD obligations, in April of 1999, the Council of Agriculture compiled a national report on biodiversity which gave rise to the ”Biodiversity Action Plan”, and was later passed in the Executive Yuan.[10]. By cataloguing and documenting the existing flora unique in Taiwan, and through a systematic documentation and allowing these information to be accessible through web, Taiwan not only increases its profile, at the same time, for those foreign pharmaceutical and research institutions searching for specific plant variety, the database increases the efficiency of search, and theoretically, create the incentives for foreign pharmaceutical and research institutions to enter cooperative relationships with local research institutions.

Additionally, the establishment of flora databank means that the existing plant species in Taiwan are documented, and this would be complemented even further if a proper regulatory framework that establish the usages and promote the principle of equitable sharing similar to that of the CBD’s. This would be invaluable as it would increases Taiwan’s negotiation power at international level, where Taiwan could enter into bargaining and fast track to technologies that Taiwan currently cannot access.

In absence of a proper regulatory framework that provides the usages and accesses to the genetic databank encrypted in Taiwan’s natural wonders, Taiwan’s ecosystems are at risk of exploitation. Moreover, to extract and unearth the useful genetic materials in plant species require specific technological know-how, that could only be achieved through capability building. As the world economies move towards knowledge-based economy, to step ahead in the global competition, the specialisation in relevant fields and establishment of solid research and development sector is essential if Taiwan intends to sustain its economy. Even though Taiwan is not a party to the CBD, there is an urgent need for Taiwan to allocate research funds to the rising industry, establish a functional regulatory mechanism, as well to polish its international negotiation power to obtain the needed technology-transfer. The rapid losses of biodiversity and the speed of climate change mean the government must seize the opportunity to re-examine the domestic industries and reconstruct its allocation of funding accordingly.

Biodiversity as Ecosystem Service

Although sceptics doubted the possibility of climate change and its effects in the last century, recent reports and weather anomalies around the world has proven otherwise. The capitalist prosperity enjoyed in the last century coincided with the speed of deterioration of world ecosystems which raised little alarm until recently. Biodiversity should be equate with the concept that conservation of ecosystems should be construe as a “service”, where conversation of coastal areas and inland wetlands which help to filter and purify water, when the ecosystem services is converted into monetary terms would cost $74,000 and $14,000 per hectare per year.[11] Moreover, as ecosystems are not all equal either in their value for their potential as carbon storage and other ecosystem services, this means the world richest ecosystems are often are found the developing nations, these hidden assets have been overlooked as potential bargaining chips. Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United National Environment Programme, calculated that the amount of carbon dioxide captured and stored by coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass beds was equivalent to the half the emissions produced by the world’s mechanised transport.[12]

To halt the climate change and its devastations require collective and global alliance, the North and South need to work together to solve this human-induced catastrophe by recognising the common but differentiate responsibility. Conservation of biodiversity and maintenance of current ecosystem function are important climate change mitigation strategies, the world need to recognise the much taken-for-granted services that ecosystems around the global serve, and perhaps through a formal recognition, developing countries may be able to negotiate through exchange of their ecosystem services, be granted technologies and knowledge that are needed to close the North and South gap.

Conclusion

Debates on global warming are increasingly heated as its effects are becoming more and more apparent and are in need of feasible regulatory frameworks both at the international and national levels. Climate changes exacerbates the long-neglected problem of loss of biodiversity throughout the world, and despite some pessimistic predication that the climate changes would aggregate the North and South divide, yet the recent conservation awareness and human’s awaken realization of the importance of biodiversity, is a fresh air for the developing nations. As this might be a trade-off opportunity for developing nations to obtain some technologies from the developed nations. Nevertheless, the loss of biodiversity accelerated by climate change is itself a vicious cycle, and is alarmingly exerting a catastrophic domino effect on the world’s ecosystem. The declining number of polar bears at Arctic affects the polar ecosystem, and in terms affects the migratory species and their migratory behaviours; these cascading effects penetrate through every corner of the global as the Earth and its inhabitants are intrinsically interconnected. So who’s afraid of thinner polar bears? We all should be, very, very afraid. 

[1] All copyright waived

[2] Polar bears on involuntary diets http://www.norden.org/en/news-and-events/news/polar-bears-on-involuntary-diets

[3] Melting Arctic Sea Ice Threatens Polar Bears, http://earthtrends.wri.org/updates/node/138

[4] The Arctic Experience: Arctic Biodiversity Beyond Polar Bears http://www.grida.no/polar/news/2393.aspx

[5] Polar bears, diet and eating habit http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info/info-books/polar-bear/diet.htm

[6] At Risk: Migratory Specieshttp://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=43061

[7] Natural Selection http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_selection

[8] A New Paradigm of Drug Discovery Better and More Affordable Medicines for Everyone http://sebs.rutgers.edu/research/archive.asp?22

[9] See Class Lecture, Prof. Lee, November 9, 2009  

[10] Bureau of Forestry Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, http://www.forest.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=21461&ctNode=1887&mp=3

[11] Letting a thousand flowers witherhttp://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14686491

[12] Ibid