Wild animal population has dropped by 60 percent since 1970

Wild animal population has dropped by 60 percent since 1970, according to new figures.

Human consumption, pollution, and climate change has ensured that there is now less than half of the wild animals there was over 40 years ago. Global conservation group WWF released a new Living Planet report today detailing the stark drop in these animal populations over time. The report states that since 1970, 60 percent of all animals with a backbone (fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals) have disappeared from the planet. Freshwater fauna have also declined in population by 80 percent since this time. The report found that human consumption of food and resources has caused the significant drop in wild animals which some scientists are now calling a "mass extinction." Executive director of science and conservation at WWF, Mike Barrett, said that humans are "sleepwalking towards the edge of a cliff." He told The Guardian: 

"If there was a 60 percent decline in the human population, that would be equivalent to emptying North America, South America, Africa, Europe, China and Oceania. That is the scale of what we have done. “This is far more than just being about losing the wonders of nature, desperately sad though that is. This is actually now jeopardising the future of people. Nature is not a ‘nice to have’ – it is our life-support system.”

The Living Planet report used the data of 16,704 populations of wild animals including mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians. These represented over 4,000 species on the earth and monitored the decline of wildlife between 1970 and 2014 - a drop which has continued to increase over recent years. The report suggests that this generation may be the last who can can act to reverse the trend.