Global wildlife populations have fallen by 60% since 1970 as humans overuse natural resources, drive climate change and pollute the planet, a chilling report has warned. WWF has called for an ambitious global deal for nature and people, similar to the international Paris Agreement to deal with climate change, as the new report tried to stop the damage being done to the natural world.
Only a quarter of the world’s land area is free from the impacts of human activity and by 2050 that will have fallen to just a tenth. The percentage of the world’s seabirds with plastic in their stomach is estimated to have increased from 5% in 1960 to 90% today, so it’s time for people to stop throwing plastic which pollutes the sea seriously. The world has already lost around half its shallow water corals in just 30 years.
Populations of more than 4,000 species of mammals, reptiles, birds, fish and amphibians have declined by an average of 60% between 1970 and 2014. Tropical areas have seen the worst declines, with an 89% fall in populations in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1970 as a result of the loss of habitats. Species which live in fresh water habitats, such as frogs and river fish, have seen global population falls of 83%, according to the living planet index by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) which tracks the abundance of wildlife.
From hedgehogs and puffins to elephants, rhinos and polar bears, wildlife is in decline, due to illegal shooting, pollution of land and seas and rising global temperatures, the Living Planet report warns. Current action to protect nature is failing because it is not enough to match the scale of the threat the planet is facing, the conservationists claim.

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1. What is the writer’s attitude toward the decrease of wildlife populations?

A    Serious.

B    Natural.

C    Great.

D    Happy.

2. What caused the plastic in seabirds’ stomach?

A    The changed climate.

B    The polluted seawater.

C    The increased population.

D    The overused resource.

3. Why have the tropical areas seen the worst decline?

A    The number of wildlife is great.

B    There is too much rain there.

C    They don’t have shallow water.

D    The living places are damaged.

4. What is the problem of protecting the wildlife currently?

A    No one wants to do that.

B    People are in need of money.

C    People’s efforts are too weak to match the planet’s threat.

D    No law stops illegal shooting.