Humans wiped out 60% of wildlife since 1970
Rate Of Species Loss Up 100-1,000 Times From Few Centuries Ago
Unbridled consumption has decimated global wildlife, triggered a mass extinction and exhausted Earth’s capacity to accommodate humanity’s expanding appetites, the conservation group WWF warned on Tuesday. From 1970 to 2014, 60% of all animals with a backbone — fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles and mammals — were wiped out by human activity, according to WWF’s “Living Planet” report, based on an ongoing survey of more than 4,000 species spread over 16,700 populations across the globe. “The situation is really bad, and it keeps getting worse,” WWF International director general Marco Lambertini said. “The only good news is that we know exactly what is happening.” For freshwater fauna, the decline in population over the 44 years monitored was a staggering 80%. Regionally, Latin America was hit hardest, seeing a nearly 90% loss of wildlife over the same period. Depending on which of Earth’s lifeforms are included, the current rate of species loss is 100 to 1,000 times higher than only a few hundred years ago, when people began to alter Earth’s chemistry and crowd other creatures out of existence. Wild animals today only account for 4% of mammals on Earth, with humans (36%) and livestock (60%) making up the rest. Ten thousand years ago that ratio was reversed. Back-to-back marine heatwaves have already wiped out up to half of the globe’s shallow-water reefs, which support a quarter of all marine life. Even if humanity manages to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius — mission impossible — coral mortality will likely be 70 to 90%. The onslaught of hunting, shrinking habitat, pollution, illegal trade and climate change — all caused by humans — has been too much to overcome, he said. In looking for answers, conservationists are turning to climate change. “We need a new global deal for nature,” said Lambertini, noting two key ingredients in the 195-nation Paris climate treaty. “One was the realisation that climate change was dangerous for the economy and society, not just polar bears,” he said. Similarly, threatened ecosystem services long taken for granted are worth tens of trillions of dollars every year. “A healthy, sustainable future for all is only possible on a planet where nature thrives,” said Lambertini. AF
Source: Times of India, 31/10/2018
