Colcom Foundation leans on several major international assessments to explain why it funds conservation work. Taken together, the numbers describe a planet under heavy strain.

The 2019 IPBES Global Assessment, produced by an intergovernmental science body, found that about 1 million plant and animal species face extinction, more than at any earlier point in human history. The same assessment found that 75% of land environments have been markedly altered by human activity and named land use change as the largest single driver of biodiversity decline worldwide.

The Economic View

The Foundation also cites The Economics of Biodiversity The Dasgupta Review, a 2021 analysis commissioned by HM Treasury in the United Kingdom. That review found humanity uses natural capital 1.6 times faster than the Earth can regenerate it. It also concluded that natural capital underpins all economic activity, and that continued biodiversity loss threatens long-term human prosperity and security.

Colcom Foundation connects these figures to two mechanisms of damage. The first is extracting natural resources faster than ecosystems can regenerate them. The second is emitting waste faster than natural systems can process it. Bradshaw and colleagues, writing in Frontiers in Conservation Science in 2021, found that current human numbers and consumption rates are driving a sixth mass extinction.

Bringing It Home

Global data frame a mission centered on the United States. Colcom Foundation describes its purpose as fostering “a sustainable environment to ensure quality of life for all Americans,” with particular attention to population growth and its effects on natural resources. U.S. figures from 1970 to 2021 show why: per capita CO2 emissions fell 35%, yet population grew 62% and total emissions climbed 15%.

The Foundation’s response includes land acquisition, ecosystem restoration, aquatic habitat protection, and public education. Its explainer argues that the scale of alteration documented by IPBES calls for sustained private philanthropic investment working alongside public funding. Much of that investment flows to nonprofits in Pennsylvania, where restoring streams damaged by coal mining remains a top regional priority. Refer to this article to learn more.

 

Find more information about Colcom Foundation on https://wvutoday.wvu.edu/stories/2024/03/12/wvu-led-three-rivers-quest-expands-environmental-research-and-education-efforts-with-colcom-foundation-support