Livin' the life...

Barring a terrorist attack on a major city, today is the first day I have seen the same story being covered on the front page of three of the top news articles I read. BBC, Yahoo! and Metro were all keen to cover the plummeting of the wild life populations alluded to in a recent report.

The BBC reports, "Between a quarter and a third of the world's wildlife has been lost since 1970, according to data compiled by the Zoological Society of London. Populations of land-based species fell by 25%, marine by 28% and freshwater by 29%, it says. Humans are wiping out about 1% of all other species every year, and one of the "great extinction episodes" in the Earth's history is under way, it says" (Source).

What are the core reasons you ask? The authors seem to squarely blame it on pollution, farming and urban expansion, over-fishing and hunting. But of course, that can't be a surprise for us. I believe it was the Metro (on the paper's front page) that said that human population was up 60%. In their report online they state add to this point and state, "The declines [of the wild life populations] come at a time when humans are consuming ever more natural resources, and are now using 25% more than the planet can replace" (Source).

Having read this post, I'm positive you will agree that the polar bear photo (from the Metro) illustrates the current state of affairs quite accurately.