Top UN scientists warn humans at risk from biodiversity crisis

A landmark report by the United Nations’ scientific panel on biodiversity warns that humans are at dire risk unless urgent action is taken to restore the plants, animals and other natural resources they depend on to survive. The report, which was issued in Paris on Monday by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), describes a world where living and future generations of people face the threat of worsening food and water shortages, because of habitat and species loss.

The rate at which plant and animal life are now disappearing from the earth is tens or hundreds of times faster than in the past, according to the report. More than 1 million species on earth face extinction – many within decades – because they “have insufficient habitat for long-term survival”. If biodiversity continues to decline at the current pace, there will be dire consequences for humans, who depend on nature to provide food, drinking water, clean air and energy. Yet the report’s authors found that human activity has been the main driving force behind species loss. "We are indeed threatening the potential food security, water security, human health and social fabric" Robert Watson, a British environmental scientist who chairs the IPBES, told The Associated Press. He added that the poor in less developed countries will bear the brunt of the burden.

Source: France 24, May 6, 2019
https://www.france24.com/en/20190506-biodiversity-major-un-report-descr…