Group of wild elephants looking for banana trees in the middle of dumping ground (Sri Lanka, Trincomalee)
No one can argue that humans aren’t the dominant species — for better or worse.
World Wildlife Fund released an alarming report Tuesday asserting that humans are directly responsible for killing off an average of 60 percent of the world’s mammals, fish, birds and reptiles — in just over 40 years.
“Earth is losing biodiversity at a rate seen only during mass extinctions,” say WWF’s Living Planet Report authors.
The WWF collected data on more than 4,000 species globally between 1970 and 2014. The take-away: Humanity’s insatiable appetite for Earth’s natural resources — energy, land, water — and a growing food-production industry, is leading to “over-exploitation.”
DUMBO OCTOPUS STUNS RESEARCHERS
The WWF urges global leaders to join forces to, well, save the planet.
“Decision makers at every level need to make the right political, financial and consumer choices to achieve the vision that humanity and nature thrive in harmony on our only planet.”
They better move fast: Researchers estimate that only one-tenth of the world’s land mass has been spared from human consumption. South and Central America have suffered the greatest impact, with some 89 percent of their vertebrate species lost.