World Wildlife Fund’s Biennial Living Planet Report Brings Endangered Species into Focus

• NPG
• September 14, 2020
• NPG Commentary
• 1 Comments

World Wildlife Fund’s Biennial Living Planet Report Brings Endangered Species into Focus

Understanding the Decline of Species on our Planet and the Connection to Exponential Growth

Animal population around the world has declined 70% in the last 50 years, according to a new report issued by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Published every two years, the report is meant to be a call to action for world leaders to work together for a healthy, resilient, and sustainable world for people and nature. The WWF’s Living Planet Report 2020 “provides the scientific evidence to back what nature has been demonstrating repeatedly: unsustainable human activity is pushing the planet’s natural systems that support life on Earth to the edge.”

Main points from the Living Planet Report include:

• Wildlife population sizes are in decline
• The Latin America and Caribbean region of the world is the most affected
• 85% of global wetlands have been lost since the Industrial Revolution
• Human activity is the main driver of (animal) population decline
• Habitat destruction could mean more pandemics

WWF U.S. president and CEO Carter Roberts released a statement, saying: “This report reminds us that we destroy the planet at our peril — because it is our home. As humanity’s footprint expands into once-wild places, we’re devastating species populations. But we’re also exacerbating climate change and increasing the risk of zoonotic diseases like COVID-19. We cannot shield humanity from the impacts of environmental destruction. It’s time to restore our broken relationship with nature for the benefit of species and people alike.” Humans are certainly to blame for the high volume loss of wildlife in the past 50 years. Continued expansion of infrastructure and continued growth of consumption, population, and global trade has played the biggest role, to date, in endangering wildlife around the world.

NPG believes that the preservation of our natural spaces and wildlife is paramount. As natural support for human life rapidly declines – it is up to us, our governments, and business leaders, as well – to work together to protect these irreplaceable habitats and species. It is vital that we heed this report’s dire predictions and that we push to enact and enforce efforts to shield these endangered animals from extinction. Those efforts must include a slow and gradual reduction in human population numbers.

Explore our Forum paper series to read more on population issues, particularly:

Crushing Biodiversity with the Weight of the Human Race, by Leon Kolankiewicz

Humans are Making Oceans Warmer, Deeper, and Life Threatening, by Edwin S. Rubenstein

It’s Complicated: The Role of Land in Global Warming, by Edwin S. Rubenstein

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