"list includes more than 40 per cent of amphibian species, almost 33 percent of reef-forming corals, and more than a third of all marine mammals"
Relentless pursuit of economic growth, twinned with the impact of climate change, has put an “unprecedented” one million species at risk of extinction, scientists said on Monday in a landmark report on the damage done by modern civilization to the natural world.
Only a wide-ranging transformation of the global economic and financial system could pull ecosystems that are vital to the future of human communities worldwide back from the brink of collapse, concluded the report, which was endorsed by 130 countries, including the United States, Russia and China.
“The essential, interconnected web of life on Earth is getting smaller and increasingly frayed,” said Prof. Josef Settele, who co-chaired the study, launched in Paris on Monday by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
“This loss is a direct result of human activity and constitutes a direct threat to human well-being in all regions of the world.” (see above chart)
Compiled by 145 expert authors from 50 countries, the study is a cornerstone of an emerging body of research that suggests the world may need to embrace a new “post-growth” form of economics if it is to avert the existential risks posed by the mutually reinforcing consequences of pollution, habitat destruction and carbon emissions.
"AND, IT'S A PERFECT STORM"
WE ALSO RUNNING OUT OF NATURAL RESOURCES
