Despite Repeated Warnings: A Multidisciplinary Approach of the Shortcoming of Numbers in Indigenous Knowledge and Climate Change

Life is about numbers. With technology on offer, we think about our own choices detached from any other preoccupation. Daily steps are tracked in a graduate step-index to monitor signs of a sedentary lifestyle for health purposes (Thomson et al., BMC public health several steps/day indicators predict changes in anthropometric outcomes: HUB city steps, 2012), sustainable travel choices are sold online in an eco-friendly conduct, checking their carbon emissions targets via social media applications that manage their personal achievements unrelated to other indicators. At the same time, another group of rarefied economic power pollutes the atmosphere with up to about 300 tons of carbon dioxide adventuring in space travel, regardless of any impact on local, regional, and global climate change (See, The Guardian, Katharine Gammon, Space, How the billionaire space race could be one giant leap for pollution published on 19 of July 2021, available at https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jul/19/billionaires-space-tourism-environment-emissions .). Unbeknownst to them is the relationship of their actions to ebb away climate change mitigation policies. Economic indicators and human consumer options instruct our life, which has been inundated with more disconnected lifestyle statistics to inform our choices better than an informed guess. In short, indicators manage our choices from personal to the public arena of ideas, which is concerning. Applying critical research methods on meaningful indicators entails designing public policies for sustainability choices, and what an evaluation conveys to a wider audience needs to be clearly communicated to influence a lifestyle change for environmental impact. When we interpret indicators against the selected parameters on climate mitigation, health, sustainability, or business enterprises, we fail to understand the relationship between our local environment and climate change mitigation if we do not monitor our biodiversity conservation policies. This correct interrelation will impact sustainability policies and climate change actions for academia, governments to local populations for good. Ecological metrics are crucial to link ecological parameters together for a sound decision at the local level. An ecological metric applied to a local biodiversity hotspot suggests effective and good monitoring of rare and native species, a positive outcome for decreasing the degradation of the environment. Therefore, countries should act collaboratively to achieve positive results for climate change mitigation policies focusing on the taxonomic identification of local biodiversity, most of these species have indigenous names and the impact of human interference on local ecosystems, which demands coordinated action. This paper suggests that a holistic approach to ecological metrics may support local biodiversity conservation in connection to Indigenous Peoples Knowledge. This paper will also focus on climate change mitigation public policies that use poor or no ecological indicators in their findings to support ecological education in their daily lives for the present and the future of other generations. It concludes with an analysis of biodiversity conservation policies and economic metrics, a paradoxical relationship represented by the absence of ecological indicators in sustainability reports for evaluating environmental projects, that impact local populations and native flora and fauna. As a result, non-identified native and rare plants are discarded as possible strong indicators for curbing climate change mitigation than economic indicators.