14 animals declared extinct in the 21st century.
Woods are lovely, dark and deep…rather, woods were lovely, dark and deep!
Yes, thanks to development at all cost as green is fast being replaced by concrete all over the world, wilderness on Earth diminishes by 10 percent, says a new study as reported by Christian Science Monitor (see: http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0913/Wilderness-on-Earth-diminishes-by-10-percent-says-study )
And, soon it will be more and more difficult to walk amidst of green in wilderness as the scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society using satellite and survey data, concluded that human activities have diminished 10 percent wilderness since 1990, on Earth over the last few decades, a process that will aggravate further. This was a new study published in the journal Current Biology.
During this period, we’ve lost a total area amounting to twice the size of Alaska, researchers report. But, is action is taken as an emergency, experts say, there’s still time to save the remaining wilderness areas, although at present, only about 23 percent of the world’s land area is made up of wilderness and most of this wilderness can be found in North Asia, North Africa, Australia, and North America (primarily the northern parts of Canada). Amongst them, South America has experienced 30 percent decrease since the ’90s, and Africa with 14 percent.
And, not only we are losing our greenery, but also wildlife as 14 animals declared extinct in the 21st century.
Globally, these wilderness areas – despite being strongholds for endangered biodiversity, for buffering and regulating local climates, support many of the world’s most politically and economically marginalized communities – are completely ignored in environmental policy,” said lead author James Watson, of the University of Queensland in Australia and the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York, in a press release.
Fortunately, all hope is not lost. The study reports that nearly 80 percent of the remaining wilderness is made up of large chunks of land, increasing the chances of survival for animals living there. However, Mr. Watson added, leaders will need to act fast to protect this remaining wilderness.
If the world leaders don’t show any political will to take up the issue, the world may eventually become a single species planet and that will be a very lonely place to live!