The most comprehensive assessment of global nature loss ever made has painted a bleak prognosis for a significant proportion of Earth’s species. A landmark US report paints a desperate picture of Earth potentially decimated by an exponentially-growing human population, whose insatiable consumption is wrecking havoc in the natural world. And one chilling forecast has warned up to one million species could face extinction in the near future. The UN committee’s landmark report was authored by 145 experts from 50 countries.
And the scientists conclude the global rate of species extinction “is already tens to hundreds of times higher than it has been, on average, over the last 10 million years”.
Dwindling habitat, mis-treatment of natural resources, climate change and pollution are the main triggers of species loss.
And these causes are threatening more than 40 percent of amphibians, 33 percent of coral reefs and more than a third of all marine mammals with extinction.
Sir Robert Watson, the UN report’s chair said: “The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever,” adding “transformative change” is required to save the planet.
The report comes hot on the heels of UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) who warned Earth has less than 12 years to avoid catastrophic levels of global warming.
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In the same way that the IPCC report put the climate crisis on the political agenda, the authors of the latest UN report hope that it will thrust nature loss into the global spotlight.
Just as with climate change, humans are the main culprits of biodiversity damage, changing 75 percent of Earth’s land and 66 percent of marine ecosystems since pre-industrial times.
The UN report emphasises the catastrophic impact of population growth and rising demand.
It notes the world’s population has more than doubled (from 3.7 to 7.6 billion) in the last 50 years, and gross domestic product per person is four times higher.
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More than a third of the world’s land and three quarters of freshwater supplies are used for crop or livestock production.
Sandra Diaz, co-author of the report and professor of ecology at the University of Córdoba, said: “There is very little of the planet left that has not been significantly altered by us.
“We need to act as stewards for life on Earth.”
Professor Diaz said more economically developed countries are primarily to blame for nature damage due to their “unsustainable” levels of consumption, especially when it comes to fishing and logging.
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In 2015, a third of marine stocks were being fished at unsustainable levels and the amount of raw timber being harvested has reportedly increased by almost half since 1970, with up to 15 percent of it cut illegally.
Marine plastic pollution has increased tenfold since 1980, with an average of 300-400 million tons of waste dumped into the world’s waters annually.
Pollution entering coastal ecosystems has produced more than 400 ocean “dead zones,” totalling an area bigger than the UK.
These areas are so starved of oxygen they can barely support marine life.
Despite the ominous picture “it is not too late to make a difference, but only if we start now at every level from local to global,” said Dr Watson, adding this would require an overhaul of economic systems and a shift in political and social mindsets.
Professor Diaz said governments should start drastic changes now to avoid a “dire future” in 10-20 years when their “food and climate security is in jeopardy.”