The World Wildlife Fund’s annual living planet report has just been released, and the evidence is dire. The Living Planet Index (LPI) has declined by fifty-two percent since 1970. It is difficult to deny the severity of a number as high as HALF of all species declining over the last 40 years due to unsustainable human consumption. See the decline in pictures here.
"Given the pace and scale of change, we can no longer exclude the possibility of reaching critical tipping points that could abruptly and irreversibly change living conditions on Earth," the report said.
It is clear we must act now, looking at the scale of our development, moving from maximal scale to optimal scale, and understanding the finite limits of the biosphere on our activities if we want to continue to live with loons and polar bears, to name only two affected species in Canada. Get invovled now, join a group such as WWF, Nature Canada, Canadian Wildlife Federation. Learn as much as you can about your own backyard, how to attract and sustain the creatures you live in, participate in a Great Canadian Bioblitz, organize one for your community, let's act now.
It is time for birders, gardeners, naturalists, researchers and wildlife organizations to mobilize their networks around immediate action now to divise a national strategy for protection of critical habitats for the critters with whom we share our world. It is now abundantly clear we can't have our cake and eat it too.
Can you imagine a Canada without the call of the loon in the spring?
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