Wildlife is disappearing at a faster rate than at any time before. The new "Living Planet Report" from the World Wildlife Fund says the world's wildlife population dropped by 60 per cent between 1970 and 2014. It warned that: "Earth is losing biodiversity at a rate seen only during mass extinctions." Most of the decline is because of "exploding human consumption". There are more humans on this planet. We are eating more, overfishing, cutting down trees for beef, consuming more, and using more energy and natural resources. This has led to a massive loss of habitat for animals.
The report says that only a quarter of the world's land is untouched by humans. Human activity has greatly affected animals on three-quarters of Earth. Researchers tracked 4,000 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and amphibians. The situation is worst in South and Central America, which has seen an 89 per cent loss of wildlife in four decades. The WWF wrote: "The astonishing decline in wildlife population...is a [depressing] reminder...of the pressure we [put] on the planet." It warned: "We can be the generation that had its chance and failed to act; that let Earth slip away."