Exploitation Holocene Mass Extinction Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services United Nations Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services animals species plants extinction animal
Exploitation of wild populations has been a characteristic of modern man since our exodus from Africa 130,000 – 70,000 years ago. The rate of extinctions of entire species of plants and animals across the planet has been so high in the last few hundred years that it is widely believed that we are in the sixth great extinction event on earth; the Holocene Mass Extinction. The 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, published by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, says that roughly one million species of plants and animals face extinction within decades as the result of human actions. Subsequent studies have discovered that the destruction of wildlife is "significantly more alarming" that previously believed, with some 48% of 70,000 monitored animal species experiencing population declines as the result of human industrialization.
