Extinction Crisis

In this BBC film, Sir David Attenborough looks at the extinction crisis: around a million species are at risk of extinction. He explains why the loss of nature isn't just a wildlife problem but a threat to people too.

What the video covers

• The scale of biodiversity loss, with a million species at risk
• Threats to food and water security as ecosystems break down
• How losing nature undermines our ability to control the climate
• Why destroying habitats raises the risk of new pandemic diseases

The evidence

The "one million species" figure comes from the 2019 global assessment by IPBES, the intergovernmental science panel on biodiversity. It found that nature is declining faster than at any time in human history, driven mainly by land and sea use, overexploitation, climate change, pollution and invasive species. Healthy ecosystems pollinate crops, purify water and store huge amounts of carbon in forests, soils and oceans. When wildlife habitats are destroyed and people and animals come into closer contact, diseases are more likely to jump from animals to humans.

Related reading: Climate Change, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and Doomism in Climate Change Communication.