Wildlife Has Reduced By 60% In 40 Years, Due To Our Shameless Exploitation Of Earth's Resources

We know global warming is really messing up our only home, we know what we have to do to fix it. Unfortunately, we're not yet doing nearly enough as we need to.

In fact, experts say we need a global deal more effective than the Paris agreement, or we're doomed.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in its latest 'Living Planet Report' points out how the populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish have steeply dropped. They've apparently fallen by an average of 60 percent over the last 40 years, which is terrifying.

In order to counteract this damage, WWF says we need to seriously rethink the methods we enact to save the planet, and that recommending "more of the same" nature reserves and conservation programmes to save individual species is useless.

Also Read: We Have Killed So Many Animals On Earth, It Will Take 7 Million Years To Bring All Of Them Back

And the reason we're losing all these wildlife species? Of course it's us. At the very least, the biggest reason is because we're over-exploiting natural resources, looking for maximum profit instead of sustainability. "Right now the destruction of nature is seen as the price of development, and we cannot continue like that," Tony Juniper, WWF's executive director, told The Independent.

Paul Nicklen/National Geographic

Species of elephants, rhinos and polar bears are already on the endangered list, but WWF says even more common creatures like hedgehogs and puffins are now joining them. This trend has been particularly pronounced in tropical regions and freshwater habitats. Not surprising considering only a quarter of Earth's surface is free from human activity and that untouched area is going to shrink further by 2050.

Also Read: This Student Is Raising Awareness On Climate Change By Connecting Online Gamers With Scientists

We've created a perfect storm of poaching, overfishing, pollution, deforestation, and climate change that's now building up to a crisis experts believe can't be tackled with simple stop gap measures anymore.

"We are the first generation to know we are destroying our planet and the last one that can do anything about it," Tanya Steele, chief executive at WWF said in the piece.

Reuters

"The collapse of global wildlife populations is a warning sign that nature is dying. But instead of putting the world on life support, we're using a sticking plaster."

Now, experts suggest we need to forge a new path to saving the world, and that first step lies with coming together for a global climate agreement. The Paris Accord only sought to reduce pollution and halt the rise in global temperatures, but experts say we need more intensive measures than that. We need to conserve our biodiversity, reduce carbon emissions, and promote sustainable development.