This Planet Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us!

A joint report by the World Wide Fund for nature (WWF) and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is based on the findings of more than 130 experts (so what do they know?). They have evaluated changes in almost 21,000 populations of nearly 4,400 species of vertebrate animals (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/10/humans-exploiting-and-destroying-nature-on-unprecedented-scale-report-aoe). The study was applied to fish; amphibians; reptiles; birds and mammals. It found that there had been an almost 70% deline in wild animal numbers between 1970 and 2016. If anything, the rate of decline seems to be accelerating. Vertebrates are, of course, the animals we tend to concentrate on because they have a close affinity with humans (we are vertebrates). Having said that, other studies have shown that declines in invertebrate animal numbers and plants are just as concerning (if not more so). This loss of biodiversity concerns people from an aesthetic point of view but, much more dangerously, it points to a collapse of the ecological cycles and systems that make life on this planet a viable option. Humans are really good at trashing things and we never seem to stop!