Two out of every five species on the planet that have been assessed by scientists face extinction, according to the latest World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
Overall, 16,119 animal and plant species are in danger of extinction, including 1 in 8 birds, 1 in 4 mammals and 1 in 3 amphibian species. Since records began, 784 species have been declared extinct. From the poles to the deserts, “biodiversity loss is increasing, not slowing down,” says IUCN director-general Achim Steiner.
The main cause, as ever, is people, as humanity impacts the world’s fauna and flora both directly and indirectly. While hunting and habitat loss continue to have a disastrous effect on species numbers, global warming is emerging as another threat.
Polar bears are at significant risk:
Polar bears are such strong swimmers that many biologists consider them to be as much a marine mammal as a land one. Yet large numbers of them will starve or drown as global warming melts the Arctic’s ice sheets.
The summer sea ice that polar bears depend on is rapidly disappearing, and the latest estimates suggest that the ice will be at least halved in area over the next century, and possibly disappear completely. The effect on the bears will be disastrous, says Craig Hilton-Taylor of the IUCN’s Red List office in Cambridge, UK. “Most of the year they are on the ice hunting.” Without the ice their population is expected to fall over the next 45 years, from as many as 25,000 today to 17,500.
And certain gazelle and antelope species:
The world’s deserts may be expanding, but the animals that live in and around them are not faring well. Several species of gazelle and antelope that have specially adapted behaviours, physiologies and metabolisms to survive arid conditions are now facing extinction.
According to the IUCN’s Red List, fewer than 300 dama gazelles (Gazella dama) remain, their numbers having crashed by 80% over the past decade. The species, which is classified as critically endangered on the new list, was once widespread in 12 countries in the Sahel and beyond.
As well as many shark and ray species:
Our increasing appetite for fish and thirst for water is placing our planet’s aquatic species under unprecedented pressure.
As shallow-water fish stocks dwindle, fishers dropping nets and lines into deeper waters are taking their toll on species there. The IUCN’s new list includes 547 species of shark and ray, of which at least 20% are in danger of extinction, including the common skate (Dipturus batis). The angel shark (Squatina squatina), once a common sight in the fish markets of Europe, is now extinct in the North Sea and has been declared critically endangered elsewhere.
“Sharks and rays are particularly vulnerable because they grow slowly and are slow to mature,” says Sarah Valenti of the IUCN’s shark specialist group. Female gulper sharks (Centrophorus granulosus), for example, can take 16 years to reach maturity, and as a result of overfishing their numbers have dropped by 95% in some areas.
The list includes … a quarter of the world’s … coniferous trees…
Even the hippo is soon to be forever lost:
The hippopotamus population in war-ravaged Congo, meanwhile, has plummeted by 95 percent, mainly because of unregulated hunting for meat and ivory in their teeth.
Oh, but this can’t possibly mean anything to me, right?
The conservation union warned that the decline in wetlands and freshwater ecosystems will also damage supplies for humans of food, clean drinking water and sanitation.
Honestly, even for the red-necked hunters and Christian dominionists who feel everything is here to serve humankind, can you look at these numbers and feel comfortable with where we are heading? Sadly, I suspect too many can do just that.