Environment

The sorry state of Earth's species, in numbers

As the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) prepares to unveil a thorough diagnosis of the health of Earth's plant and animal species, this is what we already know:

– Two species of vertebrate, animals with a backbone, have gone extinct every year, on average, for the past century.

– Scientists say Earth is undergoing a "mass extinction event", the first since the dinosaurs disappeared some 65 million years ago, and only the sixth in the last half-a-billion years.

– About 41% of amphibian species and more than a quarter of mammals are threatened with extinction.

– About half of coral reefs have been lost in the last 30 years.

– The global populations of 3 706 monitored vertebrate species – fish, birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles – declined by nearly 60% from 1970 to 2012.

– 25 821 species of 91 523 assessed for the 2017 "Red List" update were classified as "threatened".

– Of these, 5 583 were "critically" endangered, 8 455 "endangered", and 11 783 "vulnerable".

– African elephant numbers dropped to 415 000 in 2016, down about 111 000 over 10 years.

– There are an estimated 8.7 million plant and animal species on our planet. This means about 86% of land species and 91% of sea species remain undiscovered.

– Of the ones we do know, 1 204 mammal, 1 469 bird, 1 215 reptile, 2 100 amphibian, and 2 386 fish species are considered threatened.

– Also threatened are 1 414 insect, 2 187 mollusc, 732 crustacean, 237 coral, 12 505 plant, 33 mushroom, and six brown algae species.

– Annual economic losses as a result of deforestation and forest degradation alone may be as high as $4.5 trillion.