Matthew Knight's article in CNN^[1]  "U.N. report: Eco-systems at 'tipping point" describes the danger point to which many ecosystems are coming.  This article would be useful to launch discussions in Option C  Ecology and Conservation.  The figures given by Nick Nuttall, a U.N. Environmental Program spokesman, indicate that the cost of loss of eco-systems will be enormous. 

"In terms of land-use change, it's thought that the annual financial loss of services eco-systems provide -- water, storing carbon and soil stabilization -- is about €50 billion ($64 billion) a year," Nuttall told CNN.

Students who also study Economics may be interested to use a similar article for their commentary.

Knight reports in his article that the third Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3) published by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

"says that no government has completely met biodiversity targets that were first set out in 2002 -- the year of the first GBO report.  Executive Director of the U.N. Environmental Program Achim Steiner said there were key economic reasons why governments had failed in this task. "Many economies remain blind to the huge value of the diversity of animals, plants and other life-forms and their role in healthy and functioning eco-systems," Steiner said in a statement.  If we start putting these figures on the table, then governments might actually wake up to this. We've had a financial crisis. We've also got a natural resource scarcity crisis looming fast."

This article certainly provokes the teaching of internationalism in the IB Biology curriculum.  How else can the world handle the ecological crises facing us?  Reports such as the GBO-3 will help each nation face its responsibilities but will soieties be willing to gie up their creature comforts in order to save the planet for future generations?