More than a million species threatened with extinction due to human activities

More than a million animal and plant species face the concrete possibility of disappearing, others in the coming decades, because of human activities, as reported in a preliminary report on the state of the world's ecosystems by the IPBES (Intergovernmental Science and Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services ).

The report, which brings together and systematizes the findings of more than 15,000 scientific studies and government reports, indicates that the greatest impact on ecosystems comes from agriculture and that the loss of species and habitats implies a risk as important to life as climate change. This is the first major international badessment of biodiversity since 2005.

In this document, it is ensured that about 75% of the soil and 66% of the ocean areas have been altered by human activityespecially for food production (of agricultural and animal origin), which uses 33% of the soil surface and 75% of its freshwater resources. Moreover, as we know, agricultural activities are among those that emit the most greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (about 25%), and this figure will increase at the same time as the population.

Besides hunting and fishing, the spread of invasive species is another major threat to biodiversity: on average, the abundance of native plants, animals and insects has fallen, in most ecosystems, to around 20%.

And you can not forget, of course, climate change. About 5% of the species would be in danger of extinction if the temperature rose only 2 ° C and 16% if the average temperature increased by 4.3 ° C.

He said Anne Larigauderie, Executive Secretary of IPBEYes, at a press conference held in Paris on May 6 biodiversity should be at the top of the global agenda, with the climate. For its part, Thomas Brooks, scientist at the International Union for Conservation of Nature in Switzerland, he said: "We have not had so far a unified statement from the governments of the world that patented, unambiguously, the crisis for life on Earth that we face"

The report concludes that the crisis is reversible, but for that it is necessary to design active environmental policies that encourage sustainable food production and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.