Humans have been wreaking havoc on the planet’s wildlife, and the numbers are pretty grim. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) just dropped a bombshell report revealing how bad things have gotten for animals all over the world.
According to BBC on Friday (18/10/2024), everything from elephants in tropical forests to hawksbill turtles in the Great Barrier Reef are disappearing fast. The Living Planet Report, which is basically a big health check for nature, shows that global wildlife populations have plunged by an average of 73% over the last 50 years. Yikes.
WWF UK’s chief, Tanya Steele, didn’t hold back, saying, “The loss of wild spaces has left many ecosystems on the edge of collapse.” We’re talking about habitats like the Amazon rainforest and coral reefs hanging by a thread.
This report pulls data from over 5,000 populations of birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, and fish, covering the last five decades. The numbers are heartbreaking—60% of the Amazon’s pink river dolphins are gone, thanks to pollution.
And it’s not just pollution. There’s also mining, civil unrest, and more messing things up for these creatures. But, in a rare bit of good news, the report shows some wins in conservation. For example, mountain gorillas in East Africa’s Virunga Mountains saw their numbers rise by about 3% per year between 2010 and 2016. Still, WWF warns that small victories aren’t enough to offset the larger destruction of natural habitats.
Tom Oliver, an ecology professor at the University of Reading, who wasn’t involved in the report, added some serious perspective: combine this report with other data, like the decline in insect populations, and you start to see a worrying picture of biodiversity collapsing across the globe.
The biggest threats? Habitat loss and degradation top the list, followed by over-exploitation, invasive species, disease, climate change, and pollution. The way humans are producing and consuming food, according to Mike Barrett, WWF’s lead author and chief science adviser, is a huge reason we’re losing these natural habitats.
On top of that, the report warns that the destruction of nature and climate change are pushing the world toward irreversible tipping points. Think the Amazon rainforest collapsing and no longer being able to store carbon to help slow down global warming.
This wake-up call for the planet’s wildlife comes just as world leaders are getting ready to meet at the United Nations (UN) Biodiversity Conference in Colombia. The goal? To figure out how to save what’s left of nature.
Nearly 200 countries are gearing up to sign a major UN agreement by 2022 to tackle the damage, aiming to set aside 30% of the planet for nature by 2030. But with the clock ticking and species vanishing, it’s clear that we’ve got a lot of work to do.