90% of seabirds have plastic in stomachs

THE percentage of seabirds with plastic in their stomach has increased to 90% from 5% in 1960, a shocking report reveals.

Plastic pollution is one of the worst ways humans are adversely affecting the environment across the globe.

Only a quarter of the world’s land area is free from the impacts of human activity and by 2050 that will have fallen to just a tenth, the Living Planet Report 2018 says.

From hedgehogs and puffins to elephants, rhinos and polar bears, wildlife is declining – driven by habitat loss, poaching, pollution and higher temperatures, according to the report by the WWF and the Zoological Society of London.

Populations of more than 4,000 species of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish and amphibians have declined by an average of 60% between 1970 and 2014.

Among the alarming findings was work from the Commonwealth and Scientific Research Organisation which showed that of 186 species of seabird, 90% have plastic in their stomachs – a figure projected to rise to 99% by 2050.

Species which live in fresh water habitats, such as frogs and river fish, have seen global population falls of 83%.

Tropical areas have experienced the worst declines, with an 89% fall in populations monitored in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1970.

WWF chief executive Tanya Steele said: ‘We are the first generation to know we are destroying our planet and the last one that can do anything about it.’

Current action to protect nature fails to match the scale of the threat facing the planet, the conservationists claim.

‘Exploding’ levels of human consumption are driving the impacts on nature, with over-exploitation of natural resources, deforestation to grow crops such as soy and palm oil, and the use of pesticides in agriculture.

Climate change and plastic pollution are also growing threats to our planet and the ecosystems within it.