【每日外刊】Rate of Species Extinction Is Speeding Up（第11周第2篇）
安娜
Rate of Species Extinction Is Speeding Up, U.N. Says
The rate that species are going extinct is accelerating to unprecedented levels, and about one million plant and animal species are now at risk of dying out over the next few decades, according to new findings from a United Nations group.
The decline in animal and plant diversity also could have consequences for people around the globe, the group said, because humans depend on many species for their food and livelihoods. A summary of the report was released on Monday.
“We’re doing a lot of damage in biodiversity. This damage is working against us,” said Patricia Miloslavich, a senior professor at the Department of Environmental Studies at Simón Bolívar University in Venezuela and a co-author on the study.
The globe is now home to an estimated eight million plant and animal species, with the average number living on land having fallen by at least 20%, mostly since 1990, the report said.
The report attributed the rate of species extinction to human activities including increases in land and sea use, overfishing, climate change, pollution and exploitative practices such as hunting. Invasive animal species were another factor.
Nearly half of amphibians and a third of all marine mammals are threatened, the report said. Since 1970, there also has been a 30% reduction in global habitat, the report said, with more than 85% of the wetlands in 1700 gone by the year 2000.
“We’re not just losing bee species. We’re losing insects,” said Joseph Walston, senior vice president for global conservation of the Wildlife Conservation Society, who wasn’t involved in the report. “We’re not just losing the tiger. We’re losing many or most vertebrates.”
Because they have played such an important role in increasing the risk to species, humans can also take actions that could reverse the trend, the group said.
“We should be able to get this done,” said Suneetha Mazhenchery Subramanian, a researcher at the United Nations University and one of the coauthors of the report. “There’s good indication to say that we can achieve this. It’s going to take a while, but the important thing is that we need to get started.”
The report, a 1,500-page paper that will be published in full later this year, was written by more than 450 experts in 50 countries. The summary was released by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, an independent U.N. body.
Its findings were based on a review of about 15,000 scientific and government studies and reports and in-depth discussions with community leaders who are witnessing the changes. They tracked the change in biodiversity over the past five decades.
Although many findings have been disclosed previously, the report provides among the most systematic accounting of the toll humans have had on the planet’s biodiversity. The global population has grown to 6.7 billion from 3.7 billion in 1970, leading to increased farming, fishing and energy use, independent experts say.
The group found that 75% of on-land environments and 66% of marine environments have been significantly altered by humans.
Among potential actions that could reverse the extinction trends are reducing food waste, adopting more sustainable fishing practices and improving land and water management.
今日外刊阅读选自《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal) 2019年5月7日刊。
《华尔街日报》创刊于1889年，以超过200万份的发行量成为美国付费发行量最大的财经报纸。这份在美国纽约出版的报纸，着重在财经新闻的报道，其内容足以影响每日的国际经济活动。《华尔街日报》的读者主要为政治、经济、教育和医学界的人士，金融大亨和经营管理人员以及股票市场的投资者，其中包括20万名的董事长、总经理。美国500家最大企业的经理人员绝大部分订阅此报。
TOBE「每日外刊」栏目提供地道的英文阅读材料，内容选自全球最新的著名英文期刊杂志， 如《经济学人》《纽约客》《科学美国人》《卫报》等等，四六级、考研、托福、雅思等考试真题的来源。阅读外刊对于培养国际视野，锻炼个人写作与思维能力，也具有非常大的帮助。
今日阅读有何收获？是否遇到什么困难？不妨写下来与大家交流讨论吧！输入与输出结合，才能最大程度地利用好每一篇原版外刊哦。
BY ANNA, TOBE
MAY 7, 2019
