"At the Natural History Museum, London, we study life on planet earth. We know that life started over 3 billion years ago and is everywhere. But the fossil record also teaches us that over that vast period there have been five occasions when almost all life disappeared; five mass extinction events when a dramatic change in the environmental conditions wiped out almost all existing species - most recently 66 million years ago when we lost the last of the dinosaurs.
Today we could be heading there again. Recent decades have seen a catastrophic acceleration in the rate of biodiversity loss signalling, the possibility of a sixth mass extinction event, and this time – one we caused.
But it’s not too late. Our scientists have been working on this and the good news is that there is a path by which we can still grow the global economy without over- consuming the earth’s natural resources.
That’s where the investor community comes in. By starting to quantify and capture the environmental externalities, investors can help nudge the world towards a path in which both people and planet can thrive".
Dr Douglas Gurr
Director, Natural History Museum
