16,000 Species Face Extinction
Posted on May 4, 2006
The AP reports that IUCN, a conservation group, says 16,000 species are in serious danger of going extinct.
According to the Swiss-based conservation group, known by its acronym IUCN, the number of species classified as being in serious danger of extinction rose from about 15,500 in its previous "Red List" report, published in 2004.The IUCN lists global warming and hunting by man as reasons why many of these species will likely go extinct. The IUCN's website is packed with information and photographs of the animals facing extinction. This table from IUCN shows how the number of threatened species has increased each year since 1998.The list includes one in three amphibians, a quarter of the world's mammals and coniferous trees, and one in eight birds, according to a preview of the 2006 Red List. The full report is published later this week.
"Biodiversity loss is increasing, not slowing down," said Achim Steiner, the conservation group's director general. "The implications of this trend for the productivity and resilience of ecosystems and the lives and livelihoods of billions of people who depend on them are far-reaching."
The Red List classifies about 40,000 species according to their risk of extinction and provides a searchable online database of the results. The total number of species on the planet is unknown, with 15 million being the most widely accepted estimate. Up to 1.8 million are known today.