One Third of World's Wildlife Disappears
Bangalore: The world’s wild life has declined to one third over the last 40 years. The big fall in wild life was figured in the new edition of land mark research conducted by WWF.
This huge decrease in the number of wildlife is found higher in some parts of the world. The estimated losses of wildlife cross 50 percent in the tropics while in tropical freshwater ecosystems alone the average loss is as big as 70 percent as per the 2012 edition of the Living Planet Report. Freshwater dolphin from China's Yangtze River seems to have become extinct now and the wild tigers face 70 percent decline in their population. Surprisingly wildlife populations are better in Wealthy societies of northern areas such as Europe and North America since they can afford good amount of conservation.
The Living Planet report is published every two years, based on the Living Planet Index. The index includes the total health measured of over 9,000 populations of more than 2,600 species, gathered by the Zoological Society of London.
WWF reported “The Ecological Footprint tracks out humanity’s demands on the biosphere by comparing the renewable resources people are consuming against the Earth’s regenerative capacity, or biocapacity: the area of land actually available to produce renewable resources and absorb CO2 emissions.”
The latest ecological footprint brings a sad picture of the planet. The report warns that unless we bring changes to the present scenario, by 2030 even two planets will not be enough to afford our consumption that is 1.5 times more than the resources naturally produced. Our consumption exceeds 50 percent more resources than the Earth can provide.
The report says that when the wild life index is right down, the human exploitation index is right up. The contrast of these two is resulted by the increase in the population levels. Earth’s natural capital has been overused by people.
