As Montreal prepares to host UN Biodiversity Conference, McGill professor Andrew Gonzalez discusses how cities can help protect nature and human health.
Global urban populations are projected to increase to nearly five billion by 2030. This ever-expanding urbanization threatens our world’s plant and animal biodiversity and degrades ecosystems through the loss of habitat, biomass and carbon storage. As noted during the recent COP27 climate conference, biodiversity loss is as critical to our planet’s health as the climate crisis.