Loss of biodiversity

Species have been evolving and going extinct ever since life first originated on Earth, but the rate at which species now disappear has accelerated sharply, destabilising both ecological stability and the wider distribution of biological diversity across the planet — and human activity is the dominant force behind this acceleration, as land, water and organisms are exploited indiscriminately. The Convention on Biological Diversity frames this in terms of direct and indirect human drivers: direct drivers — changes in local land use, the introduction or removal of species, harvesting, pollution and climate change — exert the greater pressure on biodiversity loss, while indirect drivers operate through demographic, economic, technological, cultural and religious factors. Even as new species continue to be discovered, there is little realistic hope that natural speciation can replenish the biodiversity being lost at the current pace, especially once indirect effects such as monsoon failure, global warming, ozone-layer depletion, landslides in hilly states and general pollution are factored in. The scale is stark: the IUCN Red List (2004) documents 784 species going extinct over the preceding 500 years, and the current rate of biodiversity loss is estimated at 100 to 1,000 times higher than the naturally occurring background extinction rate, with the trend still expected to worsen. The consequences ripple through entire ecosystems rather than staying c …