WHO WILL SURVIVE? - THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY AND NATURE

We are facing a historic turning point in our relationship with nature: with the coronavirus pandemic, this is the first time the effects of the species and biodiversity crisis are more significant to us as a species than the consequences of climate change. For a long time, species conservationists have warned that such a virus will come about through the trade in endangered wild animals. Do we still have the ability to master this coming change?

During expeditions, for example to the Amazon rainforest, Indonesia and Africa, Lothar Frenz witnessed many aspects of species extinction and the biodiversity crisis. He gives an impressive explanation of the complex problems we need to solve in the coming years: What should our earth look like? Does it offer enough space for the constantly growing human population and all the other living creatures? Who should be allowed to live here with us – and who shouldn’t? What kind of planet do we want to leave behind for our children? We need to ask ourselves this very moral question. Ecology, however, knows no morals, says Frenz, only consequences – and these affect the earth’s entire ecosystem. So we need to develop criteria to decide the question of survival, which has been facing us for a long time. We need a new image of ourselves as humans, so that the earth as a habitat can continue to offer us a good future.