I have drawn heavily from an article in the New York Times by Brad Plumer.
The United Nations in a 1500 report concluded that humans are transforming Earth’s natural landscapes so dramatically that as many as one million plant and animal species are now at risk of extinction, posing a dire threat to ecosystems that people all over the world depend on for their survival.
Scientists said people are putting nature in more trouble now than at any other time in human history, with extinction looming over 1 million species of plants and animals, scientists.
This report makes clear the links between biodiversity and nature and things like food security and clean water in both rich and poor countries.
131 countries, including the United States, approved this report.
This unprecedented decline creates dangers for human civilization. In most major land habitats, from the savannas of Africa to the rain forests of South America, the average abundance of native plant and animal life has fallen by 20 percent or more, mainly over the past century. With the human population passing 7 billion, activities like farming, logging, poaching, fishing and mining are altering the natural world at a rate “unprecedented in human history.”
Climate warming is shrinking the world’s immense variety of life.
