Earth enters latest 'mass extinction event' with 60 per cent of wildlife wiped out in 50 years
The human race has wiped out 60 per cent of Earth’s animal life since 1970, causing the planet to enter its sixth “mass extinction event”, alarming new research by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has found.
Humanity and the way we feed, fuel and finance our societies and economies is pushing nature and the services that power and sustain us to the brink, according to WWF’s Living Planet Report 2018.
It’s taken 44 years for humans to wipe out about 60 per cent of the planet’s animal life. And the future is predicted to be grim, with more than two thirds of the world’s wildlife expected to be gone by 2020 if current trends continue, the AAF claims.
The report, which tracked more than 4000 species across almost 17,000 populations from 1970 to 2014, also found Australia’s koala population is disappearing at a rate of about 20 per cent a decade.
The crisis is more apparent in South and Central America, which have been hit hardest with a 89 per cent decline in wildlife over the 44-year period studied.
Climate-warming carbon dioxide levels are estimated to be at their highest for 800,000 years.
“The report presents a sobering picture of the impact of human activity on the world’s wildlife, forests, oceans, rivers and climate,” the conservation organisation claims.
The findings underline the rapidly-closing window for action and the urgent need for the global community to collectively rethink and redefine how we value, protect and restore nature, the WWF says.
The top threats to species identified in the report are directly linked to human activities, including habitat loss and degradation and over exploitation of wildlife.
Earth enters sixth ‘mass extinction’ event
The index of extinction risk shows wildlife is on an accelerating slide towards oblivion, currently at a rate of 100 to 1000 times more than only a few centuries ago.
This has placed Earth in its sixth such “mass extinction” event in half-a-billion years, with the latest caused by human activity.
Over recent decades, human activity has also severely impacted the habitats and natural resources wildlife and humanity depend on, such as oceans, forests, coral reefs like our Great Barrier Reef, wetlands and mangroves.
The Earth is estimated to have lost about half of its shallow water corals in the past 30 years and 20 percent of the Amazon has disappeared in less than 50 years.
“This report sounds a warning shot across our bow,” said WWF-US President and CEO Carter Roberts.
“Natural systems essential to our survival – forests, oceans, and rivers – remain in decline. Wildlife around the world continue to dwindle.
“It reminds us we need to change course. It’s time to balance our consumption with the needs of nature, and to protect the only planet that is our home,” he said.
