The WWF has declared a state of emergency. Its Living Planet Report 2018 warns:
On average, we’ve seen an astonishing 60% decline in the size of populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians in just over 40 years
Marco Lambertini, director general of WWF International:
We can no longer ignore the impact of current unsustainable production models and wasteful lifestyles.
Tanya Steele, chief executive of the WWF:
We are the first generation to know we are destroying our planet and the last that can do anything about it.
The collapse of global wildlife populations is a warning sign that nature is dying.
Our planet is on the brink. Here's how we save it https://t.co/0QlunNPdQV #environment pic.twitter.com/I0gm2TUy83— World Economic Forum (@wef) October 30, 2018
If we continue to produce, consume and power our lives the way we do right now, forests, oceans and weather systems will be overwhelmed and collapse. Unsustainable agriculture, fisheries, infrastructure projects, mining and energy are leading to unprecedented biodiversity loss and habitat degradation, overexploitation, pollution and climate change. While their impacts are increasingly evident in the natural world, the consequences on people and businesses are real too.
Conserving forests, the ocean and wildlife is in everyone’s interest for sustainability and our own prosperity. That’s why now is the time for businesses, governments, institutions and civil society to work together to halt climate change and the devastation of nature.
Our civilisation finds itself at a crossroads. The equation is a simple one: we will not build a stable, prosperous and equitable future for humanity on a degraded planet.
