U.N. Biodiversity Report: 1 Million Species Could Be Extinct Within 30 Years

The ruby-throated hummingbird is not as common a sight in New York City as the pigeon, but  the tiny birds are some of the most important pollinators to our region, along with bats and bees.

Yet they are also one of the species most threatened by loss of habitat as a result of climate change.

"They're all around New York [and] New Jersey, but they're just in decline because we are silently but profoundly hammering them," said Joe Walston, vice-president of global conservation programs at the Wildlife Conservation Society.

According to a sweeping report released this week by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, about 1 million species of plants and animals could be driven to extinction by 2050 as a result of shrinking habitats from human expansion and the changing climate. The disappearance of key species (including pollinators like the hummingbird) will have drastic and irrevocable consequences for the planet.

"It may be easy to forget when you go to the supermarket to get your food every day, but the truth is that it's still biodiversity that's supporting our lives, our economies, our well-being every day," said Ana Porzecanski, director of the American Museum of Natural History's Center for Biodiversity and Conservation.

In particular, the report flags the dire impact of continuing to change forests into farmlands and continuing to pave over wetlands with concrete as infrastructural changes that contribute to climate change.

"The trends are clear, the drivers globally are very clear, and land transformation is at the top," said Porzecanski.

While the report gives our species 30 years to alter course, experts say the clock is ticking.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird sound courtesy of Randolph Little/Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (ML26295).