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Call for action to save wildlife全球百万物种濒临灭绝导读:据联合国近期发布的生物多样性报告显示,世界上百万物种濒临灭绝,且速度正在加快。如果人类不改变自己的生产和消费习惯,大家赖以生存的大自然注定走向衰亡。
![]() PIXABAY.COM Humans share Earth with many different kinds of wildlife. However, many of our animal and plant friends may not be around for much longer. According to the first comprehensive report on biodiversity released by the United Nations in May, 1 million of Earth’s 8 million species are threatened with extinction, including amphibians, marine mammals and insects. Humans are mainly to blame for the danger. According to the report, the world’s population has more than doubled (from 3.7 to 7.6 billion) in the last 50 years. Humans have used more than a third of the world’s land and 75 percent of freshwater supplies to grow crops and keep livestock. As a result, there are fewer habitats and fewer natural resources available as well as more pollution. Because of human activities, the global rate of species extinction over the past 50 years has been already “at least tens to hundreds of times higher than it has averaged over the past 10 million years”, the report noted. The species extinction could have serious influences on ecosystems. “When you lose a species, think of it like a fabric, and you’re taking and plucking one of the strings,” Brett Scheffers, an ecologist at the University of Florida, US, told NBC News. “Over time, the fabric gets looser and less stable. These are the types of changes we’re observing where entire ecosystems collapse.” These developments lead scientists to believe that there could be a sixth mass extinction, the first to be caused by humans, according to the Guardian. There have been five mass extinctions before, the last being 65 million years ago. That time it was the dinosaurs that died out. “The evidence is clear: The future will be bad for us if we don’t act now. There is no future for us without nature,” Sandra Diaz, coauthor of the report, told National Geographic. To deal with the problem, many countries have taken action. For example, China has banned the use of rhino horn and tiger bones, and the ivory trade, reported China Daily. According to Huffpost, there are things that we can do personally to save species. For example, don’t buy products made from illegal wildlife parts and reduce water waste. “Each individual action has a ripple effect and every person can make a difference – through a mass we can turn the tide,” said Claudia Sobrevila, from Global Wildlife Program, according to official website of the World Bank.
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