Human expansion leading to 'extinction crisis', UN warns
Human expansion is wiping out species at about 1,000 times the “natural” or “background” rate and something must be done to slow the decline, according to the United Nations.
The UN will launch the International Year of Biodiversity today, warning that the on-going loss of species around the globe will seriously affect the future of humans too. Dignitaries including UN chief Ban Ki-moon and German premier Angela Merkel will speak at the launch in Berlin. Mr Ban will say that human expansion is wiping out species at about 1,000 times the “natural” or “background” rate, and that “business as usual is not an option”, the BBC reports. The expansion of human cities, farming and infrastructure is the main reason behind the drop in biodiversity. The Secretary-General is expected to argue that world leaders must find effective ways of protecting forests, watersheds, coral reefs and other ecosystems. The UN will say that as natural systems such as forests and wetlands disappear, humanity loses the services they currently provide for free, such as the purification of air and water, protection from extreme weather events and the provision of materials for shelter and fire. The rate of species loss leads some biologists to say that we are in the middle of the Earth’s sixth great extinction, the previous five stemming from natural events as asteroid impacts.
