Biodiversity Threat
One of our planet’s greatest treasures is its incredible biodiversity: from oceans and jungles to deserts and swamplands, we’re lucky to have such a rich variety of animal and plant species. But environmentalists warn that climate change is rapidly eating away at the world’s biodiversity, especially in coastal regions and rainforests.
One of the answers to that problem has been creating protected habitats. According to a recent report from the Marine Ecology Progress Series, more than 100,000 protected areas – representing about 7 million square miles of land and 1 million square miles of ocean – have been designated in the last five decades.
But despite those conservation efforts, the diversity of species is falling, and fast. That makes one thing clear: creating protected habitats won’t be enough to slow the loss of biodiversity on our planet. Environmentalists say it will take a much bigger effort – and everyone will have to get involved.