Earlier this month the Living Planet Report of the Zoological Society of London revealed that  in the last 40 years global animal populations have plummeted by 52 %. Put another way, during the course of half a human lifetime more than half of the world’s animal population has disappeared. Just pause and read that last sentence again.

Of course,  statistics are open to analysis since they can easily be distorted to suit a particular argument. Already, some experts are questioning the figures and are wondering how they can be so precise. What nobody has done however is dispute that the world’s animals, birds and plants are steadily disappearing at an alarming rate. Human efforts at slowing down, let alone halting, the trend are having little impact and this should be of great concern to every one of us.

This blog has highlighted the subject on a number of occasions but, no matter how many times it is repeated, it can never be emphasised enough. This planet is our home and home too to millions of other species, animal or otherwise. As the most powerful species on Earth human beings have a duty and a responsibility to ensure their safety and survival. The fact that we are failing in that duty and are in fact continuing to destroy everything around us is shameful.

As individuals, what can we do? In reality not a great deal; we can write to our politicians and to the CEOs of the large corporations responsible for over fishing and deforestation and demand action but how effective would that be? Taking collective action is, however, a different ball game and giving our support to pressure groups and organisations such as Greenpeace or the World Wildlife Fund is undoubtedly a step in the right direction. One thing is for sure, we can’t just sit back and do nothing.