May 2019 Newsletter – Ocean

The release of the UN Biodiversity Report this week* examines the change in the seas as one of the five main drivers of “unprecedented” biodiversity and ecosystem change over the past 50 years. This biodiversity loss is predicts the loss of over one million species.

Within this report, “marine plastic pollution in particular has increased tenfold since 1980, affecting at least 267 species”.

The report highlights the ever increasing risk for coastal communities, with “100 – 300 million people at risk” due to loss of coastal protection and increase in floods and hurricanes.

Source: UN Report: Nature’s Dangerous Decline ‘Unprecedented’; Species Extinction Rates ‘Accelerating’