The number of wild vertebrates on the planet has fallen by half since 1970 and there is no tendency to slow down. This worrying discovery was announced by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), an international environmental organization, cited by ABC.net.
Moths, birds, fish, reptiles - under the influence of humans Earth has lost 60% of its wildlife populations between 1970 and 2014, according to WWF, cited by BTA in its "Living Planet 2018" report.
Experts have compiled the so-called living planet index, based on the study of 16.7 thousand populations of 4,000 wildlife species. According to their data, the average rate of reduction of these populations is 60 per cent over the past four decades.
Even worse are the indicators for tropical rainforest inhabitants, where the number of vertebrate mammals has dropped by as much as 89 per cent.
The main threat to mammalian, bird, reptile, fish and amphibian populations is the destructive consequences of human activity, including the destruction of habitats and overfishing.
Soil degradation causes serious damage to 73 percent of land-based ecosystems, which reduces the welfare of about 3 billion people. The sharp decline in biodiversity is also due to environmental pollution and climate change, resulting in global temperatures rising.