Up to one million plant and animal species face extinction, many within decades, because of human activities, says the most comprehensive report yet on the state of global ecosystems.
Without drastic action to conserve habitats, the rate of species extinctions—already tens to hundreds of times higher than the average across the last ten million years—will only increase, says the analysis by a United Nations-backed panel, the International Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
