{"id":43018,"date":"2014-10-04T22:25:12","date_gmt":"2014-10-05T02:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/?p=43018"},"modified":"2014-10-04T22:25:12","modified_gmt":"2014-10-05T02:25:12","slug":"happy-world-animal-day-wwf-extinction-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/happy-world-animal-day-wwf-extinction-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy World Animal Day? WWF Extinction Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s World Animal Day<\/a>,\u00a0celebrated across the globe since a 1931 convention of ecologists in Florence, Italy, conceived of it as a way to highlight the plight of endangered species. They chose October 4 because it\u2019s the Catholic Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals.<\/p>\n

Since then, people have used the occasion as an international day of action for animal rights and welfare. It has taken the form of a time\u00a0to focus on everything from cuddling your pet, to blessing a pack of hounds, to eliminating puppy mills, to addressing hunting (this year\u2019s topic), to recognizing that animals are sentient.<\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/a>Here at PlanetSave<\/em> this year, we\u2019re going back to the original concept of species extinction, mostly because the World Wildlife Fund<\/a> raised the topic just last week in issuing its biennial Living Planet Report. Briefly, the WWF and its partner agency the Zoological Society of London reported that human demands on nature are 50% higher than those nature can recover from, in terms of groundwater loss, deforestation, carbon dioxide emissions, and other factors.<\/p>\n

Mainly, we focus on the report\u2019s uncompromising take on the present and likely future of plant and animal species:<\/p>\n

\u201cPopulation sizes of vertebrate species\u2014mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish\u2014have declined by 52 percent over the last 40 years. In other words, those populations around the globe have dropped by more than half in fewer than two human generations.\u201d [By comparison, the human population has almost doubled during this time.]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When\u00a0the WWF extinction\u00a0numbers<\/a> came out on Tuesday,\u00a0they caused a smaller stir in the media than they should have, some of us think. Today being a worldwide animal holiday, it presents a good opportunity to go over what the WWF has been trying to tell us.<\/p>\n

\"Decline<\/a>The WWF compiles a “Living Planet Index” based on trends in 10,380 populations of 3,038 mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, and fish species. Its report is specific, graphically focused, and well supported by wide research. Among the conclusions:<\/p>\n