The increasing rates of change in human activity since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution which interfered significantly with Earth’s life support system to bring us where we are today. (source: WWF's Living Planet Report-2018)

On December 20, 2013, at its 68th session, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) decided to proclaim March 3, the day of the adoption of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), as World Wildlife Day.

This year's theme for World Wildlife Day is 'Life below water: for people and planet.' It is a great opportunity to raise awareness about the breathtaking diversity of marine life, the crucial importance of marine species to human development, and how we can make sure it will continue to provide these services for future generations.

Humans have exploited nature to such an extent that a staggering 60 per cent of the wildlife and 87 per cent wetlands have been wiped out since 1970.

WWF's Living Planet Report 2018 warns that ours is possibly the last generation of humans with a chance to act and reverse this trend.

"Average abundance of 16,704 populations representing 4,005 species monitored across the globe declined by 60 per cent between 1970 to 2014," the report stated.

(image source: WWF's Living Planet Report-2018)

It added that that the current rates of species extinction are 100 to 1,000 times higher than those before human pressure became a prominent factor.

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"We are the first generation that has a clear picture of the enormous impact we have on nature. We may also be the last that can act to reverse this trend, from now until 2020 will be decisive moment in history," the report stated.

The Living Planet Report by World Wildlife Fund is a biannual report and the 2018 copy mapped serious threats to pollinators like bees, soil ecology and wetlands which have direct repercussions on human food security and health.

Read: Australian rodent becomes the first mammal to go extinct due to climate change

Threats to nature and causes behind them.(image source: WWF's Living Planet Report-2018)

9 wildlife crisis points marked by WWF's Living Planet Report-2018:

1 A 190 per cent rise in ecological footprint or consumption of natural resources was recorded in the past 50 years.

2 India has one of the lowest ecological footprints among countries at less than 1.75 global hectares per person, but fared the worst in soil biodiversity which was mapped for the first time to locate threat areas.

3 Over-exploitation of nature caused by agriculture and deforestation are the major causes behind 60 per cent of the wildlife and 87 per cent wetlands being wiped out, says the WWF report.

4 Additional sources of pressure on nature are -- invasive pollution, dams, fires, mining, and climate change.

5 Between 2000 and 2010, 40 to 33 per cent forest land was converted globally as per the WWF report.

6 Between 1970 and 2014, 16,704 populations representing 4,005 wildlife species, which are monitored across the globe, declined by 60 per cent. The species monitored were vertebrate species, or animals with a backbone, with database containing information on over 22,000 populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians.

7 Intensified agriculture has threatened the abundance of pollinators, which has over 20,000 species of bees including other insects and animals, the report said. Pollination increases the global value of crop production by $237-$577 billion per year to growers alone; more than 75 per cent of leading global food crops depend on pollinators.

8 Wetlands have declined by 87 per cent globally in the modern era as per the WWF report. The index shows an 83 per cent decline in freshwater biodiversity since 1970, which is equivalent to 4 per cent decline every year.

9 The population of the critically endangered gharial (crocodile species) declined by approximately 58 per cent between 1997 and 2006 across its range in India and Nepal.

Impact of land use on biodiversity (image source: WWF Living Planet Report-2018)

The Great Acceleration

We are in the midst of a scary phenomenon right now being called 'the Great Acceleration'. The images of the graphs (Figure 1 and Figure 2) are much like that in Dan Brown's fictional novel Inferno which dealt with the overpopulation crisis in the world.

As per the WWF report, the figures note "The increasing rates of change in human activity since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The 1950s marks an explosion in growth. After this time, human activities (Figure 1) begin to interfere significantly with Earth’s life support system (Figure 2)."

Here is an excerpt from the report:

We are living through the Great Acceleration -- a unique event in the 4.5 billion-year history of our planet - with exploding human population and economic growth driving unprecedented planetary change through the increased demand for energy, land and water.

This is so great that many scientists believe we are entering a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. Some of these changes have been positive, some negative, and all of them are interconnected.

[Figure 1 - source: WWF Living Planet Report-2018] The increasing rates of change in human activity since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. (these graphs are from Steffen et al., 2015 and all the references to the datasets behind them are in the original paper).

[Figure 2 -- source: WWF Living Planet Report-2018] State of Earth's life support system.

What is increasingly clear is that human development and wellbeing are reliant on healthy natural systems, and we cannot continue to enjoy the former without the latter.

Read: World Wildlife Day 2017: 5 lesser-known endangered animals from around the world

To map soil biodiversity, a risk index was generated combining eight components including pollution, loss of above ground diversity, nutrients overloading, overgrazing, intensive agriculture, fire, soil erosion to do the same.

"These are hard times... Nature globally provides services worth around $125 trillion a year... we need more research, efforts from government, business and financial sectors, researchers and conservation communities to revive the planet," said Ravi Singh, Secretary General and CEO, WWF-India.

(With inputs from IANS)

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