Wildlife Populations Worldwide Have Plummeted

According to a shocking report released by the World Wildlife Fund, half the planets's wildlife population has vanished since 1970. The vast majority of this is due to human activity with exploitation and habitat degradation/loss being the primary culprits. Overall, 52 percent of the world's mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish disappeared over that four decade period.

As bad as human activity has been on land, the world's waterways have suffered devastating losses with freshwater wildlife populations plunging 76 percent. The majority of the general decline has occurred in low-income and developing nations. Even though some conservation projects have proven successful, the scale of the disastrous decline makes for grim reading.