Current Affair 1:

The Living Planet Report is a science-based analysis of the health of the planet and the impact of human activity. The World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has published the report every two years since 1998.

Key findings:

The Living Planet Index (LPI) helps us to see recent changes in nature from 1970 to the present by tracking the size of animal populations and how they are changing.

The Living Planet Index is an early warning indicator of increasing extinction risk and the potential loss of ecosystem function and resilience.

This global index (above image) is an average of the three indices that measure changes in ecosystems on land, in our rivers and lakes, and at sea.

These results indicate that nature is declining on average across all systems: terrestrial (69% decline (range: -55% to -79%), representing an average annual decline of 2.3%), freshwater (85% decline (range: -77% to -90%).

Biodiversity Intactness Index

The Biodiversity Intactness Index is a long-term indicator that measures how much original biodiversity remains within terrestrial communities in a given region. The trajectory since 1800 shows the effect of agricultural expansion and intensification on terrestrial biodiversity around the world: although intactness has declined across all regions, Asia has shown the steepest and largest decline over the past century (Figure below)

Concept of Tipping points:

Tipping points in the natural world occur when individual or combined pressures such as habitat degradation, land-use change, overharvesting or climate change push the system beyond a critical threshold. Two examples:

 

We will see Species Trends in India as per the report.

The report also mentioned that if the world follows India's pattern it would be least damaging to Earth to support food production by 2050. Check below:

 

 

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