Irish Examiner view: A lost world

Global wildlife populations have fallen by nearly 70% in less than 50 years, conservationists warned as they called for immediate action to halt the nature and climate crises.

The new data from the Living Planet Report, which tracks Earth’s wildlife populations, makes grim reading for all of us, with forecasts that we are living through the sixth mass extinction — the largest loss of life since the time of the dinosaurs — and that it is being driven by humans.

Wildlife numbers have fallen by an average of 69% in just under 50 years, alongside forest clearance, ever-increasing consumption, and global pollution. The assessment, compiled by the World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London, shows that the abundance of amphibians, reptiles, birds, and fish declined on average by two thirds between 1970 and 2018 and that this rate is accelerating.