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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020. DISCOVER 17i
One million species face extinction, more than ever before
in human history, according to a U.N. report released in May.
And humanity is responsible.
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity
and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) based the assessment on some
15,000 sources that consider the causes and consequences of
environmental changes over the past 50 years.
The findings are stark. The authors found that about 25 percent
of the world’s plants and animals are vulnerable to extinction.
These include over a third of marine mammals and more than
40 percent of amphibians. Even domesticated animals are at risk:Over 9 percent of domesticated mammal breeds used for food and
agriculture already may have been lost.
This rapid decline of the natural world endangers global food
security and quality of life. For instance, an estimated 4 billion
people rely on natural medicines, produced by the vanishing
species, for their health care. And losses of species that pollinate
plants would threaten up to $577 billion in crops each year.
The researchers identified five drivers responsible for the
grim news. At the top of the list is land- and sea-use change: the
conversion of ecosystems to agriculture, aquaculture and other
human developments. It’s followed by the direct exploitation of
organisms (overharvesting, logging, hunting and fishing) and
climate change, including rising sea levels and increasing extreme-
weather events, wildfires, floods and droughts. The final culprits
are pollution — especially plastics — and the spread of invasive
species, non-native organisms that can displace or kill native plants
and animals.
The authors say only “transformative change” — such as a new
global approach toward consumption and waste — could turn the
tables. Whether that’s possible is an open question.A Million
Species in
Danger
(^4) BY RONI DENGLER
Many sea turtle species worldwide are threatened
with extinction, but the hawksbill sea turtle is the
closest to the brink, followed by its relative, the
Kemp’s ridley sea turtle. The hawksbill grows slowly,
breeds rarely and is exploited by humans, which has
led to its demise.