This article was originally published by WWF.
“I have long believed that there can be no reckoning with the future without a clear-eyed understanding of the present. WWF’s new Living Planet Report 2018 (LPR), a stocktake of nature globally, presents a clear and sobering picture of how human activity is changing the face of our planet, its wildlife, forests, rivers and oceans.
As global wildlife populations show a 60 per cent decline, on average, in little over 40 years, the report also provides scientific evidence that some of the ocean’s most productive habitats such as coral reefs and mangroves are half lost already.
These are startling statistics that should spur us all into action. Leading the charge should be global policy makers who understand the foundational importance of these habitats and what their decline represents for ocean ecosystems, including fish populations, and for the people who depend on them. It amounts to an existential threat.
A perfect storm is brewing. As coastal communities expand rapidly around the world, ocean-derived resources are already stretched thin: the LPR also shows how pressure on many fish stocks continues to grow each year and how quickly plastic pollution’s insidious reach is spreading. With climate change decisively on the march as the recent IPCC report confirms, there can be no greater urgency…”
Read on at: WWF
