68% of world’s wildlife lost in 46 yearsAbout two-thirds of the world’s wildlife has vanished since 1970 due to human activity, World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet Report 2020 says.
The population of 4,392 species it monitors has declined 68% between 1970 and 2016, an average drop of 4% a year. It’s the kind of steep decline the earth hasn’t seen for millions of years.
The main reasons are rising consum-ption, land-use change or conversion of natural habitats such as grasslands, forest and wetlands for agriculture or industry, and introduction of non-native species.
Humans have altered 75% of the planet’s ice-free land surface, and 85% of wetlands have been lost since the Industrial Revolution.