The shape of this totem illustrates the difference between the global population of wild animals today and fifty years ago.
PRESENT POPULATION
OF WILD ANIMALS
PRESENT POPULATION
OF WILD ANIMALS THAT
HAVE BECOME EXTINCT
IN THE LAST 50 YEARS
In the last 50 years the population of wild animals has decreased by 60%. The spiralling extinction of the population of wild animals is caused, among other things, by urbanisation, the conversion of natural land into agricultural land, hunting, poaching, climate change and pollution. If the present trends continue, around one million species will disappear in the coming decades.
Forecasts
United Nations Sustainable Development
UN Report: Nature’s Dangerous Decline ‘Unprecedented’; Species Extinction Rates ‘Accelerating’
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