14 october 2022
A sweeping
report published Thursday by one of the world's largest conservation groups
found Earth's vertebrate animal populations experienced an average decline of
nearly 70% between 1970 and 2018.
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By Jake Johnson
A sweeping report published Thursday by one of the
world’s largest conservation groups finds that Earth’s vertebrate animal
populations experienced an average decline of nearly 70% between 1970 and 2018,
a staggering drop that experts attribute to the worsening climate crisis,
pollution, the large-scale destruction of forests and continued human
exploitation of wildlife.
The World
Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Living Planet Report
2022, which the group calls its most comprehensive
study to date, estimates that tens of thousands of monitored mammal, bird,
amphibian, reptile and fish populations have seen an average 69% decline in
relative abundance over just a 50-year period, a blaring signal that the planet
is in the midst of a devastating biodiversity crisis.
“The message is clear and the lights are flashing red,” states the new report, which examines nearly 32,000 species populations across the planet — from the oceanic whitetip shark to the Amazon pink river dolphin to Darwin’s frog — to spotlight what it describes as the twin emergencies of climate change and species decline.
“Climate change is having a dramatic impact on our natural environment,” the
report notes.
“Some species are dying out while others are having to move where they live due to changes in
air temperature, weather patterns, and sea levels. As well as being a direct
driver of biodiversity loss, climate change also worsens the other drivers.”
WWF warns that
animal populations in its freshwater Living Planet Index “have been hit the
hardest, declining by an average of 83%” thanks to myriad factors, including
pollution and massive species exploitation. Regionally, Latin America — home to
the rapidly deteriorating Amazon rainforest — has seen the largest decline in average population abundance at
94%.
“These plunges in wildlife populations can have
dire consequences for our health and economies,” said Rebecca Shaw, WWF’s
global chief scientist.
“When wildlife populations decline to this degree,
it means dramatic changes are impacting their habitats and the food and water
they rely on. We should care deeply about the unraveling of natural systems
because these same resources sustain human life.”
As Vox’s Benji
Jones explains, WWF’s topline figure of 69% average animal
population decline “does not mean there are two-thirds fewer
animals today compared to 50 years ago.”
“It’s not counting all the animals lost in each
group and adding that up; it’s measuring the relative size of the decline in
each population and averaging it,” Jones notes.
Still, WWF’s
findings paint a dire picture of the global wildlife emergency as scientists
warn Earth may be in the midst of a “Sixth Mass Extinction,” this one caused by the degradation of the natural world by the fossil fuel industry and other human activity.
The New York
Times notes that some experts believe WWF’s report “actually underestimates the
global biodiversity crisis, in part because
devastating declines in amphibians may be underrepresented in the data.”
WWF’s report
comes as world leaders are set to gather for the second phase of UN Biodiversity
Conference (COP-15) talks in Montreal, Canada, to
negotiate a global framework to mitigate and reverse the accelerating
biodiversity crisis.
The first phase
of the COP-15 negotiations ended in disappointment, with climate campaigners
decrying world leaders’ lack of
urgency in the face of plummeting species
populations.
In a statement, WWF said the upcoming Montreal
talks represent “a once-in-a-decade opportunity to course-correct for the sake
of people and the planet.”
“The U.S. government can help ensure that COP15 and
the emerging 2030 Global Biodiversity Framework are successful through its
diplomatic engagement and by bringing new resources to the table to help
developing countries protect their biodiversity,” the group argued.
Carter Roberts, president and CEO of WWF-US, urged
Congress to “finalize this year’s funding bills with significant increases for
global conservation programs.”
“Doing so,” Roberts said, “would empower the
federal government to drive greater progress in conserving and restoring
nature, and send a signal to other countries that it expects other actors to do
the same.”
Originally
published by Common Dreams.
Jake Johnson is
a staff writer for Common Dreams.
Source: https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/animal-population-decline-biodiversity-crisis-cd/
