The world is a cacophony of life — a symphony of species, each with its unique note, its own rhythm. But lately, the orchestra has been faltering. The crescendo of biodiversity is giving way to a mournful dirge. The WWF’s Living Planet Report 2022 serves as our somber sheet music, revealing a dissonant truth: our wildlife populations have been silenced, their melodies fading into oblivion. Wildlife Populations Decline:
The WWF’s Living Planet Report 2022 reveals that wildlife populations have declined by an average of 69% over the past 50 years1. Latin America has experienced the greatest regional decline in average population abundance at 94%, while freshwater species globally have seen the greatest overall decline at 83%.
Portugeuse fishermen in the cod banks off the America coast in the 1500s described the cod being so thick and abundant you could almost walk on the sea. When you read accounts of wildlife, of the abundance before the industrial age, it's difficult to imagine.
It would be so cool to see what we’d learn about whales if scientists could study them at their previous population.
I bet they had much more complex social relations when they were at their natural population density before we fucked the ocean up.