You've left me now and it's seasoned my soul*
What does 69% average decline of vertebrate populations mean?
* from Stevie Nicks’s If You Ever Did Believe.
We have no spaces and places to appropriately grieve the species we are losing in the biodiversity crisis. Thusly, I make every star-crossed lovers song I hear into a song about species loss in my head. I believe Stevie Nicks wrote most of her songs about the now extinct Hawaiian monk seal. You heard it here first.
Here are some goofy animal drawings, and a Thirsty Science video, to accompany you while you read some information about the current state of wild animals that you need to read.
The World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London have published the 2022 Living Planet Report, and it indicates that populations of vertebrate species- birds, fish, mammals, reptiles- that have been monitored between 1970 and 2018, average trend, is that they are declining by 69% since 1970. Freshwater species have declined 83% since 1970. Species of fish that migrate to spawn that have been monitored in that period of time have declined by 76%. Specific regions where biodiversity is most sharply declining include Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and the Indo-Pacific.
Goofy animal drawing chaser:
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