Yesterday the United Nations released another in its series of assessments on meeting global conservation targets, this one is a final report card on whether the world achieved the 20 global biodiversity targets set in 2010 with a 2020 deadline.  “If this were a school and these were tests, the world has flunked, said Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive secretary of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity.

Why This Matters:  The report is another loudly ringing alarm bell that our current path is unsustainable — and we need to make a huge shift away from “business as usual” across a range of human activities.