- The planet in the middle ofa mass extinction— the sixth time in Earth’s history that a wide swath of species are experiencing a major collapse in their populations.
- Human activitiesare to blame: Pollution, farming, and deforestation are destroying natural habitats.
- According to a new report from the United Nations, up to 1 million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction, many within decades.
- Here’s what the world stands to lose if we continue to ruin these species’ habitats.
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The climate crisis his hitting Earth’s plants and animals with a one, two punch. breakdown has reached dire straits. Asoceans heat up and surface temperatures rise (four of the last five years have been the warmest on record for the planet, other consequences of human activity are also altering the planet’s natural habitats on an unprecedented scale.
Yesterday, the United Nations released a summary of a report from its Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) that assesses the state of our planet’s biodiversity. The authors found that between 500,000 and 1 million plant and animals species face extinction, many within decades.
The report reiterates that there’s just one factor to blame for this troubling trend: us. Pollution, deforestation, and habitat loss due to farming and development have already “severely altered” 75% of all land and 40% of marine environments, it says.
“Human actions threaten more species with global extinction now than ever before,” the authors wrote.
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