Nature charity says we must act soon as report gives dire wildlife warning

-

GLOBAL wildlife populations have fallen 60% since 1970 as humans overuse natural resources, drive climate change and pollute the planet, a report warns.

WWF has called for an ambitious “global deal” for nature and people, similar to the international Paris Agreement to tackle climate change, as the conservation charity’s new report spelled out the damage being done to the natural world.

Only a quarter of the world’s land area is free from the impacts of human activity and by 2050 that will have fallen to just a tenth, the Living Planet Report 2018 says.

The percentage of the world’s seabirds with plastic iCLimn their stomach is estimated to have increased from 5% in 1960 to 90% today, and the world has lost around half its shallow water corals in just 30 years.

More than 4,000 species of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish and amphibians fell by an average of 60% between 1970 and 2014, the most recent year for which data is available.

Tropical areas have seen the worst declines, with an 89% fall in populations monitored in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1970.

Species that live in fresh water habitats, like frogs and river fish, have seen global population falls of 83%, according to the living planet index by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

From hedgehogs and puffins to elephants, rhinos and polar bears, wildlife is in decline, due to the loss of habitats, poaching, pollution of land and seas and rising global temperatures, the Living Planet Report warns.

Current action is not enough to match the scale of the threat facing the planet, the conservationists claim.

“Exploding” levels of human consumption are driving the impacts on nature due to over-fishing, felling forests to grow crops such as soy and palm oil and the use of pesticides in agriculture.

Climate change and plastic pollution are also significant and growing threats.

But wildlife is not just “nice to have” for humans, the report warns, with human food, health and medicines all relying on natural resources.

All human economic activity ultimately depends on nature, the report said, with globally natural resources estimated to provide services worth 125 trillion US dollars (£97 trillion) a year.

With the world set to review progress on sustainable development and conserving biodiversity under UN agreements by 2020, there is a chance to act in the next two years, the conservation group argues.

A new global deal should be secured, backed by strong commitments from governments and businesses.

WWF chief executive Tanya Steele said: “We are the first generation to know we’re destroying our planet and the last that can do anything about it.

“If we want a world with orangutans and puffins, clean air and enough food for everyone, we need urgent action from our leaders and a new global deal for nature and people that kick starts a global programme of recovery.”

TV presenter and WWF-UK ambassador Ben Fogle said: “I don’t want my children growing up to learn about tigers, rhinos and even hedgehogs through history books and museums.

“I want them to see our world’s diverse and wonderful wildlife with their own eyes.”

Environment Secretary Michael Gove said: “The continued decline in global nature highlighted by this alarming report matters to us all.

“We are committed to being the first generation to reverse the decline in our precious environment and leave it in a better state than we found it.

“By working with countries around the world to develop a new global framework under the Convention on Biological Diversity, we will ensure we leave a legacy of which we can all be proud.”

Sue Hayman, shadow environment secretary, said: “It is ironic that this report comes a day after the Chancellor gave a budget speech that failed to even mention climate change once.

“Britain desperately needs a government that understands the scale of the climate and environmental crisis unfolding.”



https://ift.tt/2JNolFO

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All In The Family: Maine Mother & Son Charged in Massive Drug Bust

-
Image
corso dog :: Article Creator Woman Hospitalized After Attack By 2 Dogs At Same Edmonton Home Where Boy Died: Lawyer UPDATE: On April 15, 2024, the City of Edmonton provided an update on the fatal attack. It said that prior to the deadly incident on April 1, "the city had no lawful basis to remove the dogs from the home." The city added that "all prior complaints about the dogs involved in this incident were investigated thoroughly and appropriate action was taken in accordance with the applicable legislation." The city also said a review found that its staff "acted appropriately in accordance with our standard practices and in compliance with the relevant legal constraints given the nature of past complaints and reports." A woman was hospitalized after being attacked in February by two large Cane Corso dogs at the same home where an 11-year-old boy was killed last week, the woman's lawyer told Global News. "I...
Read more

Rare Frogs And Illegal Drugs - Palisades Hudson Financial Group

-
Image
Colombian conservationist Ivan Lozano has hit on a brilliantly promising strategy to protect his country’s rare and endangered amphibians. His plan: Flood the market with them. Lozano is not hunting rare frogs in Colombia’s Andean forests. He is raising them himself and selling them at prices designed to undercut poachers and smugglers. If he can raise the frogs cheaply enough, and in large enough numbers, he might manage to drive down the market price to the point that poachers no longer find it worthwhile to harvest and smuggle the creatures onto the black markets. Lozano told The Associated Press that his company also encourages collectors to breed their own frogs. Picture yourself as a poacher. If the government toughens the legal penalties and steps up enforcement, you will shrug your shoulders; legal risks are a basic cost of doing business. Since the demand for your product already exists among foreign collectors and other buyers, tougher enforcement merely reduces supply a...
Read more

Burn scars, winter storms threaten rare and endangered species in San Gabriel Mountains - The Bakersfield Californian

-
Image
LOS ANGELES — Up until a few weeks ago, the West Fork of the San Gabriel River was one of the most abundant wildlife habitats in Los Angeles County, a secluded and rugged area defined by its steep peaks, lush canyons and mixture of rare and endangered species. Recently however, a team of federal biologists and forest rangers was aghast when it visited the stream following the Bobcat fire, which has burned more than 115,000 acres in the heart of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. Terrain that once resembled a High Sierra granite gorge now looked like ground zero after a nuclear explosion, and the usually clean mountain air was sharp with the stench of smoke. Particularly unsettling were the bare and ashen slopes that were now primed to dissolve under pounding winter storms. A heavy mudslide, experts said, could reverse decades of conservation efforts by inundating the last outposts for such federally protected species as the Santa Ana sucker fish and Southern California m...
Read more