This article by David Levine was published on DC Media Group on May 6, 2019.
The UN’s alarming report on declining biodiversity and accelerating extinction rates is making headlines and generating clicks and shares on social media. Based on “overwhelming evidence” from a “wide range of different fields of knowledge,” the report paints an “ominous picture,” says Sir Robert Watson, who chairs the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services that issued the report.
One million species are threatened with extinction, and the planetary ecosystem that supports human life is declining at unprecedented rates. “The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever,” Watson continues. “We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.”
On Facebook, “wow,” “sad,” and “angry” reactions are piling up below the links. In the comments, expressions of resignation, outrage, and disgust are multiplying. Each reaction and comment amplifies the network effects, causing Facebook to promote the news in more feeds.
The reason for this is simple. Humans are organisms. Our attention algorithms are biologically programmed to notice threats and retreat from the things we fear before we move toward the things that attract us. We evolved by making sure we were not eaten first, and only after we were not eaten we took the time to seek our own sources of nourishment.
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