WWF sounds alarm, says next mass extinction would be second only to dinosaurs

Alert given as WWF launched its ‘Winners and Losers of 2021’ list containing animals whose survival is threatened

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The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Germany sounded the alarm about the rising number of plants and animals on a worldwide list of threatened breeds, stating that breeds in excess of a million could perish in the next decade.

According to a report in Deutsche Welle, A number of animals and plants are on the edge of destruction due to rising ecological risks to an extent unparalleled from the days of the dinosaurs, the German office of the WWF stated on Wednesday.

The dire alert was given as WWF Germany launched its ‘Winners and Losers of 2021’, a yearly list of animals whose survival is seriously threatened at present.

Presently 142,500 animal and plant breeds are on the Red List of the International Union Conservation of Nature (IUCN) – out of which 40,000 are at risk from disappearance.

Since the Red List was instituted in 1964, this is the biggest count of breeds made a part of the document, as per WWF Germany.

It stated in remarks that close to a million breeds could vanish in the next 10 years – the greatest en masse destruction occurrence since the conclusion of the dinosaur era.

Key ecological preservation policies were immediately required, especially in combatting climate change according to WWF Germany director Eberhard Brandes.

He stated that the preservation of breeds is not about merely being victorious over the ecological issue anymore, but is more concerned with the problem of the future of the human race belonging to a threatened species sooner or later – and thus turn into casualty of its own way of life.

The African forest elephant is one of the most seriously endangered species – and part of a disadvantaged lot on the 2021 WWF list – whose numbers dwindled by 86 percent in little more than three decades.

Polar bears joined the elephants on the list, since the fast thawing of sheet ice in the Arctic Ocean is making their adjustment out of the question. Researchers reckon that the Arctic could potentially be stripped of ice in the next 15 years or so.

Other endangered species include German tree frogs and toads, grey cranes and migratory fish.

However, there were also some bright spots and victors in the arena of ecological preservation, as observed by the WWF.

One of the most uncommon species  among large felines, the Iberian lynx made a victorious return in the Iberian peninsula, as did the numbers of German large bustards, the Nepali Indian rhinoceros and bearded vultures, blue whales and crocodiles in Cambodia.