Stories for our children | The world in 2050 | ZSL

Oct. 20, 2010 - PRLog -- Stories for our Children, created by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and illustrated by award-winning political cartoonist Martin Rowson, tells the story of what our planet will look like in 2050 if we continue to overexploit the natural world.

The book shows the gradual demise of the planet as it struggles under the weight of an inflated population of more than nine billion people.  The planet stares in dismay at bald patches of deforested land the size of Australia, dehydrates from lack of fresh water and doubles over from ocean acidification and overfishing. In the end, the planet is left holding the bones of the 25 per cent of all species that may be lost over the next century.

“Stories for our Children was created to help the world’s governments and general public visualise the world we are passing on to the next generation.  We purposely made the story quite dark, because these are unfortunately very likely scenarios if governments do not take immediate and radical steps to protect the rest of life on earth,” says Prof Jonathan Baillie, co-author and Director of Conservation at ZSL.

Copies of the book will be hand-delivered to legislators during the final week of the conference on biodiversity in Nagoya, where decisions on new targets for reducing biodiversity loss will be thrashed out by 195 countries.

“Illustrations have influenced politics throughout history.  I wanted to illustrate Stories for our Children because I believe the next generation has the right to experience every aspect of the natural world that we see around us today,“ says Martin Rowson.

Solutions to the grim predictions of Stories for our Children are available online at: http://www.zsl.org/conservation/conservation-policy/2050/    


ENDS

Notes for editors

• Stories for our children is also available as a short film here: http://www.zsl.org/conservation/conservation-policy/2050/  
 
Stories for our Children was funded by Synchronicity Earth. Synchronicity Earth works to identify workable or innovative conservation solutions, major gaps in funding, and priorities for action. We aim to use this knowledge to bring about measurable and lasting change for ecosystems, species and people, and to foster broader support for our mission.

• GLOBE International consists of senior cross-party members of parliaments from G20+ countries. The International Commission on Land Use Change and Ecosystems (ICLUCE) is one of three Policy Commissions coordinated by GLOBE International. The overall goal of the ICLUCE is to develop a political narrative that is consistent with the latest economic and scientific understanding, which can be shaped into a set of policy measures for senior legislators to implement, in order to address land use change and ecosystem degradation. The Zoological Society of London is the scientific advisory body to GLOBE International.


• You are an integral part of nature; your fate is tightly linked with biodiversity, the huge variety of other animals and plants, the places they live and their surrounding environments, all over the world.  You rely on this diversity of life to provide you with the food, fuel, medicine and other essentials you simply cannot live without. Yet this rich diversity is being lost at a greatly accelerated rate because of human activities. This impoverishes us all and weakens the ability of the living systems, on which we depend, to resist growing threats such as climate change.  2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity, and people all over the world are working to safeguard this irreplaceable natural wealth and reduce biodiversity loss. This is vital for current and future human wellbeing. We need to do more. Now is the time to act.

# # #

• Founded in 1826, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is an international scientific, conservation and educational charity: our key role is the conservation of animals and their habitats. The Society runs ZSL London Zoo and ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, carries out scientific research at the Institute of Zoology and is actively involved in field conservation overseas. For further information please visit www.zsl.org