Almost half of the world’s species are in decline. In the ocean, more than one third of sharks, rays and related species are at risk of extinction from overfishing alone. A quarter of marine mammals are threatened or endangered as are six of the seven species of sea turtles, some critically. To stem this biodiversity collapse and at the strong urging of the global scientific community, nations that belong to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted the 30 by 30 goal in 2022. While the U.S. is not a member of CBD, President Biden separately committed the country to 30 by 30 by an executive order signed in his first week in office. The long-awaited “Atlas” released today was intended to help set a baseline for the 30×30 effort. The surprising “one-third” figure represents the Administration’s baseline for the ocean (for land, it’s 13+%).
Think again. The…