To celebrate World Environment Day and the 15th anniversary of the Earth Charter, ECI organized a webinar on Ecological Integrity with guest lecturer Professor Brendan Mackey from Australia. Prof. Mackey is a climate change expert and also has had a long relationship with the Earth Charter. The webinar had guests from all over the world, with attendees joining from North America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, and Latin America.
Prof. Mackey introduced the Ecological Integrity definitions in the Earth Charter to begin, citing both parts of the preamble as well as the four principles in the second pillar of the Earth Charter. He explained the Ecological Integrity implied the healthy functioning of natural systems, stability, resilience, and adaptive capacity, including biodiversity, and also the continuing provision of ecosystem services. He showed a variety of charts to highlight the human footprint and effect on ecological integrity. He also introduced the I=PAT formula, Impact equals population times affluence times technology, which is a standard tool for explaining human impacts on ecological systems. Prof. Mackey ended his presentation stressing possible solutions and highlighting the importance of tools like the Earth Charter in order to reduce the “I” in the formula, or the footprint, in other words.
A lively discussion and question and answer ensued for the last half an hour during which Prof. Mackey and the audience exchanged questions and clarifications on the Ecological Integrity presentation.
You can watch the recording here:
And keep up-to-date on further Earth Charter +15 events here: /content/pages/Earth%20Charter%20Plus%2015