The Earth Has Lost More Than Half Its Animals Since 1970.
The global wildlife population declined by nearly 60 percent over the past four decades according to an alarming new report from the World Wildlife Foundation and the Zoological Society of London. This rate of decline is set to continue so that by 2020, nearly two thirds of all living creatures on the planet will have died when compared with 1970 population levels.
That estimate comes from the Living Planet Index, a measurement of 3,706 vertebrate species including mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles used to calculate the change in abundance over time. The LPI shows a 58 percent decline between 1970 and 2012, and the report estimates losses will hit 67 percent by the end of the decade.
The Living Planet Index can be downloaded here.
Extracted from http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/10/27/the_earth_has_lost_more_than_half_its_animals_since_1970.html – 27 October 2016