If ever there was reason for us all to sit up, take notice — and finally act — to save this planet we all share, it comes in a stark and alarming report from the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF). According to the report, half of our wild animals have vanished from the face of the Earth over the past 40 years, while three-quarters of our freshwater fish have disappeared — all because of our actions. Or perhaps more fittingly — because of our inactions.
Over the past four decades, we have destroyed more habitats than all of the generations of man that have gone before through the millennia. We have cut down more trees, decimated forests and changed the landscapes of the planet forever by our over-use of chemicals and more intensive farming methods. And the ones who have paid the price are the fish in our streams, the birds in our skies, the insects on our plants, the beasts in the wild and the mammals in our seas.
And unless we reverse this incredibly destructive and damaging trend, we will be the generation that will have eradicated more species and animals than ever before — all in the name of progress.
This WWF report should be compulsive reading for all. And it should be the prick of conscience that finally pushes us to real action on climate change and the environment. That is the call of the wild — and the few animals there now.
