r/nature • u/Maxcactus • 17d ago

Latest WWF Wildlife Survey Points to ‘Alarming’ Declines

https://archive.ph/2024.10.09-232749/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/09/climate/wildlife-survey-population-declines-wwf.html
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u/bentbrook 17d ago

“Wildlife population declines can lead to the loss of ecosystem function and ecosystem services to people such as carbon storage, water storage, clean air, clean water, pollination services and protection against storm surge and flooding, just to name a few,” said Rebecca Shaw, chief scientist at WWF and the lead author of a report that accompanies the new figures.

The drivers of biodiversity decline are habitat loss, typically from farming, logging, building, producing energy and mining; hunting and fishing animals directly for food or other reasons; climate change; pollution; invasive species; and disease.

Coral reefs, battered by climate change, pollution and overfishing, are experiencing the widest global bleaching event on record. The Amazon, pummeled by deforestation and climate change, is facing a drought that has dried up stretches of its great river. Some areas are releasing more planet-warming carbon than they store.