Afterwards I would notice that the front of the car was caked with dead insects.

Nowadays, there might be a handful of deceased bugs on my car after a long trip.

This difference in bug numbers is an example of the loss in biodiversity that has happened during the last few decades.

In 2019, The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) released a report.

Its findings, from 445 contributors in 50 countries and over 15,000 sources, found that earth's biodiversity continues to decline at an alarming rate.

While The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been a necessary focus in recent years, not enough is known about the IPBES.

The 2019 report spoke about five "direct drivers of change" in declining biodiversity.

The first, with the greatest impact, is "changes in land and sea use". This includes such things as land clearing and the general degradation to both land and water quality.

In second place came "direct exploitation of organisms". Examples of this would be the overfishing of the world's oceans and the hunting of animals into extinction (remember the white rhino?).

What is enormously significant is that climate change is 'only' number three on the IPBES list.

Number four is pollution. This involves industrial pollution (300 to 400 million tonnes annually), and fertiliser runoff, creating 400 "dead zones" in our oceans.

Plastic pollution has increased by a factor of 10 since 1980.

The number five cause of biodiversity loss is "invasive alien species".

The destruction caused by cane toads in Australia is but one example of this.

The report calls for transformative change in the way humanity lives with and within nature.

In the words of the then IPBES chair, Sir Robert Watson: "We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide."

What can we, in the everyday, do?

We can contact our governing representatives, at all levels, and remind them that the situation is dire; we could ask that Australia fast-track the development of its own recycling industry.

We can double-down on reducing plastics in our lives. We can develop/maintain our relationship with nature - river walks and bushwalks, maintaining a garden or a pot plant.

We could foster our psyche's connection to nature with a practice like meditation.

We could join organisations like the Bathurst Community Climate Action Network and Greening Bathurst.