Red alert

| 15 June 2019
minute reading time

Life on Earth under serious threat

The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List is the world’s most comprehensive source of information on the conservation status of animals and plants. It’s a useful indicator of the state of the world’s biodiversity – a barometer of life. Over 105,000 species have been assessed and the results are disturbing with more than 28,000 threatened with extinction – 25 per cent of mammals, 40 per cent of amphibians, 34 per cent of conifers, 14 per cent of birds, 30 per cent of sharks and rays and 33 per cent of reef-building corals – all living under threat. Clearing land for grazing or growing animal feed and overexploitation (hunting and fishing) are by far the most prevalent threats.

IUCN. 2019. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. www.iucnredlist.org 

About the author
Dr. Justine Butler
I joined Viva! as a health campaigner in 2005 after graduating from Bristol University with a PhD in molecular biology. My scientific training helped me research and write numerous reports, guides and fact sheets for Viva! including Meat the Truth, Fish-Free for Life, One in Nine (breast cancer and diet) and the substantial report on the detrimental health effects of consuming dairy; White Lies. This accompanied Viva!’s report The Dark Side of Dairy which spelt out the inherent cruelty of dairy farming. We were the first UK group to take on the dairy industry in this way, and many of our supporters go vegan after reading these reports.

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