One million animal and plant species are at imminent risk of extinction due to humankind’s relentless pursuit of economic growth, scientists said on Monday in a landmark report on the devastating impact of modern civilization on the natural world.
The first-ever Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services by Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) rings alarm bells on the state of the planet’s biodiversity. According to the global assessment, one million animal and plant species are under extinction. More to it, thousands of these would extinct within decades. “More than ever before in human history” is how the assessment report has termed the extinction rate. If one tracks back extinction of species to the 16th century, 680 vertebrate species have been pushed into extinction since then, while 9 per cent of all domesticated breeds of mammals used for food and agriculture went extinct by 2016.
— source downtoearth.org.in, reuters.com | 06 May 2019