The dwindling diversity of life on Earth

The ongoing stress placed on nature by human actions has undermined the biodiversity of our interdependent planet

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The Earth does not belong to human beings alone, yet we continue acting as if nature and all other living creatures are here only for us to continue exploiting with reckless abandon. This callous attitude has ushered in the age of the Anthropocene, an epoch during which human activities have evidently begun to alter the planet's climate and all its interdependent ecosystems.

When the Anthropocene began is still contested. Some argue that the industrial revolution marked the beginning of this era. Others think that it was later when human activities began making significant changes to the natural world. However, most experts agree that this era was certainly in effect by the 1950s.

After the end of the second world war, global international development institutions had begun advocating strategies to give precedence to economic growth, and using the market mechanism became an increasingly dominant way to organise global production processes. Agricultural policies promoted via the so-called 'green revolution' placed emphasis on using high yield varieties of crops, needing increasing amounts of water, fertilisers and pesticides. Such growth-obsessed agriculture, alongside other profit obsessed manufacturing policies, began causing major spikes in air and water pollution, fueling unchecked deforestation and widespread destruction of fragile habitats. As a result, wildlife populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish began to suffer irreparable damage.

According to the World Wildlife Fund's 'Living Planet' report published a couple of years ago, wildlife species have seen a 69% drop on average since 1970. While this report draws on an impressive database of thousands of species of wildlife, it still does not take account of human impacts on all living creatures, including insects, which are also no doubt suffering the consequence of our activities as well.

Wildlife populations have suffered a major decline even in Europe and the US, despite the resources made available by these rich countries for conservation efforts. In other parts of the world, especially in poorer countries, which still supply the bulk of raw materials to richer countries, the decline in wildlife is even more alarming. WWF noted how wildlife populations in Latin America and the Caribbean region decreased by 94% on average between 1970 and 2018. In countries like Pakistan, unthinking urban planning, the demand for growing more crops, and profit-driven compulsions of the timber mafia have reduced the forest cover to around 5 per cent of all available land. The waterways in the country are also heavily polluted. Consequently, local populations of Indus River dolphins, snow leopards, and many other unique species are in crisis.

The only wildlife people human beings seem to care about are those of domestic animals being bred for their muscle power, their meat, or for other byproducts, such as milk or leather. A handful of other species also secure some protection due to the desire of people to keep pets. Every other living creature that has as much of a right to exist on this planet as human beings do seems either a threat, or else superfluous, other than perhaps being showcased for the sake of human entertainment in zoo-like settings.

The ongoing stress being placed on nature by human actions is depleting the biodiversity of our interdependent planet that is now threatening the well-being of our current and future generations. All is not lost, and there is still some time left to begin placing emphasis on the restoration of natural habitats which can help stressed wildlife populations recuperate, while simultaneously addressing varied climate threats, which have also begun undermining the welfare of ordinary people around the world.