41% of UK Wildlife Species Have Declined Since 1970, Major Report Finds

[Waking Times]: Brexit may have dominated the headlines in recent weeks, but another crisis is underway in the UK: One in seven of its wildlife species face extinction, and 41 percent have declined since 1970.

Those figures are from the most recent State of Nature report, released Friday. It is the “most detailed report ever” on the state of the UK’s wildlife, according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). It looked at nearly 7,000 species and drew on the expertise of more than 70 organizations, BBC News reported.

The report builds on other alarming findings. A 2018 study found that a fifth of UK mammals could be extinct within 10 years. The last State of Nature report, in 2016, found that the UK was “among the most nature depleted countries in the world,” according to The Guardian.

“We are in the midst of a nature and climate emergency right here at home,” Mark Wright of WWF told The Guardian. “The new [post-Brexit] environment bill must be world-leading with bold legal targets and a strong watchdog that holds the government accountable for halting the losses.”

The major drivers of biodiversity loss are agriculture, the climate crisis, urbanization, pollution, hydrological change, invasive species and woodland management, the report said.

Pesticide use on crops increased 53 percent between 1990 and 2010, and many species are shifting their ranges 20 kilometers (approximately 12 miles) north per decade as temperatures warm, BBC News reported....<<<Read The Full Article Here>>>...