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An ocean of opportunities, if we turn the tide today
WWF’s new “Living Planet Report 2018” (LPR) a stocktake of nature globally, presents a clear and sobering picture of how human activity is changing the face of our planet, its wildlife, forests, rivers and oceans.
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Ocean future: The oceans carry not only living artifacts and history, but also promise for the future. (Courtesy of Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministry/-)
I
have long believed that there can be no reckoning with the future without a clear-eyed understanding of the present. WWF’s new “Living Planet Report 2018” (LPR) a stocktake of nature globally, presents a clear and sobering picture of how human activity is changing the face of our planet, its wildlife, forests, rivers and oceans.
As global wildlife populations show a 60 percent decline, on average, in little over 40 years, the report also provides scientific evidence that some of the ocean’s most productive habitats such as coral reefs and mangroves are half lost already.
These are startling statistics that should spur us all into action. Leading the charge should be global policymakers who understand the foundational importance of these habitats and what their decline represents for ocean ecosystems, including fish populations, and for the people who depend on them. It amounts to an existential threat.
A perfect storm is brewing. As coastal communities expand rapidly around the world, ocean-derived resources are already stretched thin: the Report also shows how pressure on many fish stocks continues to grow each year and how quickly plastic pollution’s insidious reach is spreading.
