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Loss of biodiversity

Loss of biodiversity refers to predicted changes to the Earth caused by climate change and human activities. Worldwide, there is an estimated 5 to 30 million species of animals and plants – all genetically unique. Most remain unidentified. About 1.4 million animal species have been catalogued and named. There are only about 400,000 named and catalogued plant species.

It is difficult to get a complete and accurate picture of biodiversity since it is not uniformly distributed across the planet. To create a simple index scientists compare numbers of species between sites. About 3,000 plant species are used worldwide as food sources. The percentage of animal species used by humans is somewhat lower, but the scale is much greater.

Many drugs and raw materials (fibers, resins, dye, waxes, pesticides, lubricants and perfumes) are derived from plant and animal sources. Globally, 3.5 million people rely on plant-based medicines – in the U.S. alone ¼ of medicines are derived from plant sources. 3.8 million cubic meters of wood are provided every year by trees.

All of this and more is threatened by the possible loss of biodiversity. Habitat degradation, pollution and contamination are a huge concern for humans, plants, and animals alike. Atmospheric pollution has already sped up changes in climate patterns that are predicted to cause dramatic changes in the habitat and ecosystem imbalance from weather-related habitat destruction.

Rates of extinction are now estimated to be between 1,000 and 10,000 times greater than the recent past. Tropical forest is still being destroyed at the rate of 0.8 to 2.0% every year – threatening some of their estimated 5 million species with extinction. This large-scale, rapid global extinction is taking place at rates that are a thousand times higher than the average rate of the past 65 million years.