EXTINCTION

“Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history—and the rate of species extinctions is accelerating with grave impacts on people around the world now likely,” says the first-ever Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services by Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. According to the assessment, one million animal and plant species are under extinction. Thousands of these would get extinct within decades. Three-quarters of the land-based environment and two-thirds of the marine environment have been significantly altered by human actions. The decade also marked the formal declaration of the Anthropocene, or the age of the humans.