In a shocking report from the World Wide Fund for Nature, aka the WWF, they’ve concluded that between the years of 1970 and 2010 that half of all the vertebrate species in the world have dropped in number considerably. Their data states that 40 percent of the terrestrial and marine populations have declined and that 76 percent of the freshwater species have also suffered.
With these figures put on the table there is an alarm going off and it calls for humanity to see how it affects us. Jon Hoekstra is who is the Vice President and chief scientist for the WWF’s branch in the US stated that the wildlife’ health populations won’t be able to tell us what the state of the planet’s ecosystems is. Hoekstra referenced the old adage that the species drop off is like the old “canary in the coal mine.”, referring to when miners would carry a canary or bird in an open cage into the mines with them and if the bird died or started gasping that meant deadly gases were emitting.
Hoekstra points to less habitat as the main reason for the die offs. Also, he focused on the forest ecosystems and their abundance of food and shelter as well as economic livelihoods. With these ecosystems dwindling the ramifications are too frightening to imagine.
Take into account that 100s of billions of dollars are generated from these ecosystems. Should they be further compromised well over the 1 billion people now who are starving and without food and water as jobs would be lost and resources to deliver more resources would be challenging. Considering how fast we humans are breeding the challenges ahead seem astronomical and overwhelming.
The hard-headed conservatives who think that defending and nurturing ecosystems is a liberal thing don’t realize the monetary value which it is estimated by the researcher that the global ecosystem services at around $127 trillion per year.
Yes, trillion!
Of extra note is the impact of not standing up for the environment on a sanity level. It would be insane and absurd to let the ecosystems die off at the rate they are. There are species out there in the wild our scientists have yet to examine for valuable resources like medicines and other assets. The only time governments get concerned about the environment is if said resources can be used to manufacture weapons or harmful pharmaceuticals.
The battle rages on whether mankind will do something about the dwindling number of life forms and the ecosystems we’re dependent on.
