Wandering albatross: Populations are declining rapidly, driven largely by accidental catches in long line fisheries. Whale sharks: Numbers of the largest fish have collapsed by two thirds in the last 75 years in the Indian and-Pacific Oceans, due to overfishing and ship collisions. Orangutans: More than 100,000 were lost in Borneo alone between 19, largely due to forest destruction for timber and palm oil, leaving the great apes critically endangered Killing for food is the next biggest cause – 300 mammal species are being eaten into extinction – while the oceans are massively overfished, with more than half now being industrially fished.Īfrican elephants: With 55 being poached for ivory every day, more are being poached than are being born, meaning populations are plunging Three-quarters of all land on Earth is now significantly affected by human activities. The biggest cause of wildlife losses is the destruction of natural habitats, much of it to create farmland. “The Living Planet report clearly demonstrates that human activities are destroying nature at an unacceptable rate, threatening the wellbeing of current and future generations.” “Nature contributes to human wellbeing culturally and spiritually, as well as through the critical production of food, clean water, and energy, and through regulating the Earth’s climate, pollution, pollination and floods,” he said. Wildlife and the ecosystems are vital to human life, said Prof Bob Watson, one of the world’s most eminent environmental scientists and currently chair of an intergovernmental panel on biodiversity that said in March that the destruction of nature is as dangerous as climate change. The “shocking truth”, said Barrett, is that the wildlife crash is continuing unabated. Between 19, the latest data available, populations fell by an average of 60%. The Living Planet Index, produced for WWF by the Zoological Society of London, uses data on 16,704 populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians, representing more than 4,000 species, to track the decline of wildlife. Other recent analyses have revealed that humankind has destroyed 83% of all mammals and half of plants since the dawn of civilisation and that, even if the destruction were to end now, it would take 5-7 million years for the natural world to recover. Many scientists believe the world has begun a sixth mass extinction, the first to be caused by a species – Homo sapiens. ![]() “Only by addressing both ecosystems and climate do we stand a chance of safeguarding a stable planet for humanity’s future on Earth.” “We are rapidly running out of time,” said Prof Johan Rockström, a global sustainability expert at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.
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