IPBES biodiversity report: 500 thousand "Dead species walking" not yet extinct but at risk

Probable extinction by the end of this century for 50% of the million existing species
Today presented in Rome the latest IPBES “Assessment Report on the Different Value and Valuation of Nature”

From the beginning of the 16th century onwards, at least 680 vertebrates, from the dodo to the Sicilian wolf and the Tasmanian tiger, have gone extinct, almost always due to human causes. At least 9% of all mammal species kept for food or agriculture have been driven to extinction and at least 1000 are threatened. According to IPBES - the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, the highest scientific authority on biodiversity - nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in history, and the rate of species extinction is accelerating.