1 Million Animal And Plant Species Are At Risk Of Extinction, U.N. Report Says

May 6, 2019 2:10 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
Bill Chappell, Nathan Rott

Up to 1 million of the estimated 8 million plant and animal species on Earth are at risk of extinction — many of them within decades — according to scientists and researchers who produced a sweeping U.N. report on how humanity's burgeoning growth is putting the world's biodiversity at perilous risk.

Some of the report's findings might not seem new to those who have followed stories of how humans have affected the environment, from shifts in seasons to the prevalence of plastics and other contaminants in water. But its authors say the assessment is the most accurate and comprehensive review yet of the damage people are inflicting on the planet. And they warn that nature is declining at "unprecedented" rates and that the changes will put people at risk.

"Protecting biodiversity amounts to protecting humanity," UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said at a news conference about the findings Monday morning.

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"The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever," Watson says. He emphasizes that business and financial concerns are also threatened. "We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide," he says.

The report lists a number of key global threats, from humans' use of land and sea resources to challenges posed by climate change, pollution and invasive species.

"Insect pollinators are unfortunately an excellent example of the problems caused by human activities," Scott McArt, an entomology professor at Cornell University, says in a statement about the report.

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Here's a short selection of some of the report's notable findings:

75% of land environment and some 66% of the marine environment "have been significantly altered by human actions."
"More than a third of the world's land surface and nearly 75% of freshwater resources" are used for crops or livestock.
"Up to $577 billion in annual global crops are at risk from pollinator loss."
Between 100 million and 300 million people now face "increased risk of floods and hurricanes because of loss of coastal habitats and protection."
Since 1992, the world's urban areas have more than doubled.
"Plastic pollution has increased tenfold since 1980," and from "300-400 million tons of heavy metals, solvents, toxic sludge" and other industrial waste are dumped into the world's water systems.

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Díaz and other experts portrayed humans as both the cause of the threat and a target of its risks. As humanity demands ever more food, energy, housing and other resources, they say, it's also undermining its own food security and long-term prospects.

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The report found patterns of "telecoupling," which another co-chair, Eduardo S. Brondízio of Brazil and the U.S., describes as the phenomenon of resources being extracted and made into goods in one part of the world "to satisfy the needs of distant consumers in other regions."

That pattern, Brondízio says, makes it more complicated to avoid damage to nature through the usual avenues of governance and accountability.

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