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[ed. <u+2013> the earth has lost millions of species throughout its history, according to current research. you couldn<u+2019>t prove a catastrophic loss of wildlife since 1970 by the experience of humans; the animals are still all around us, and many of them are flourishing to the detriment of human-inhabited areas. this report sounds like the tendentious exaggeration of something that is to be expected, but is framed in alarmist terms.] 




the number of wild animals living on earth is set to fall by two-thirds by 2020, according to a new report , part of a mass extinction that is destroying the natural world upon which humanity depends. 




the analysis, the most comprehensive to date, indicates that animal populations plummeted by 58% between 1970 and 2012, with losses on track to reach 67% by 2020. researchers from wwf and the zoological society of london compiled the report from scientific data and found that the destruction of wild habitats, hunting and pollution were to blame. 




the creatures being lost range from mountains to forests to rivers and the seas and include well-known endangered species such as elephants and gorillas and lesser known creatures such as vultures and salamanders. 




the collapse of wildlife is, with climate change, the most striking sign of the anthropocene, a proposed new geological era in which humans dominate the planet. <u+201c>we are no longer a small world on a big planet. we are now a big world on a small planet, where we have reached a saturation point,<u+201d> said prof johan rockstr<u+00f6>m, executive director of the stockholm resilience centre, in a foreword for the report.
alarmist report: earth to lose 67% of wildlife populations by 2020
j.e. dyer