The planet has seen a 60% drop in the population of animals, including mammals, fish, birds, and reptiles since 1970.
What is more alarming is the fact that the rapid drop in global animal population has been caused by human hands, jeopardising our very own life-support system.
This plain truth has been revealed by the ‘2018 Living Planet Report’ released jointly by the conservation organisation World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London.
The report recently stated that habitat loss and degradation, overfishing, pollution, and soil degradation have resulted in 60% drop in the populations of non-human vertebrate life forms.
The report warns that humanity depends on an intricate web of species, and the more holes, which people poke in that web, the greater the chance of that web failing. Humans are in effect cutting the strings of their own safety net.
Marine and freshwater ecosystems are also facing huge pressures. Almost 6bn tonnes of fish and invertebrates have been taken from the world’s oceans since 1950. 
Plastic pollution has been detected in all major marine environments worldwide, from shorelines and surface waters down to the deepest parts of the ocean, including the bottom of the Mariana Trench. 
Freshwater habitats, such as lakes, rivers and wetlands, are the source of life for all humans yet they are also the most threatened, strongly affected by a range of factors including habitat modification, fragmentation and destruction, invasive species, overfishing, pollution, disease and climate change. 
Using big data, sophisticated imaging methods and a wave of other new tracking and analytical tools, researchers are matching commodities and their supply chains to specific impacts on biodiversity. Increasing the transparency around these complex relationships may help to stop biodiversity loss, the report noted. 
This global overview is useful but it is also important to understand whether there are differences in threats between different geographic regions and whether similar species are affected by them in different ways.
All economic activity ultimately depends on services provided by nature, which the report estimates to be worth around $125tn a year. 
Business and the finance industry are starting to question how global environmental risks will affect the macroeconomic performance of countries, sectors and financial markets, and policymakers wonder how we will meet climate and sustainable development targets with declining nature and biodiversity. Exploding human consumption is the driving force behind the unprecedented planetary change we are witnessing, through the increased demand for energy, land and water. 
Consumption indicators – such as the ‘Ecological Footprint’ – provide a picture of overall resource use. The products we consume, the supply chains behind them, the materials they use and how these are extracted and manufactured have myriad impacts on the world around us. 
While climate change is a growing threat, the main drivers of biodiversity decline continue to be the overexploitation of species, agriculture and land conversion. 
Clearly, the ‘2018 Living Planet Report’ contains some eye-opening information about the impact the human race has had on our planet.
It is time we realised that our day-to-day activities, health, and livelihoods depend a lot on a healthy planet!