The study, conducted by 1,360 experts in 95 nations, says the growing human population has polluted or overexploited two-thirds of the ecological systems on which life depends, from clean air to fresh water, over the last 50 years. “At the heart of this assessment is a stark warning,” said the 45-member council of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. “Human activity is placing such a strain on Earth's natural functions that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to support future generations can no longer be taken for granted,” he says. Ten to 30 percent of mammal, bird and amphibian species are already threatened with extinction, according to the assessment, the largest overhaul of the planet's life-support systems. “Over the past 50 years, humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than at any comparable time in human history, largely to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fiber and fuel,” he says the relationship. has resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible loss of the diversity of life on earth," he added. For example, since 1945 more land has been transformed into cropland than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined. Worsening "The harmful consequences of this degradation could worsen significantly over the next 50 years," it read. The report was compiled by experts, including United Nations agencies and international scientific and development organizations. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that The study "shows how human activities are causing large-scale environmental damage around the world, and how biodiversity - the very basis of life on earth - is declining at an alarming rate. the changes could bring sudden outbreaks of disease. The warming of the Great Lakes in Africa due to climate change, for example, could create the conditions for the spread of cholera. And a buildup of nitrogen from fertilizers washed off farmland into the seas could spur sudden algae blooms that suffocate fish or create oxygen. -impoverished "dead zones" along the coasts. It is said that deforestation often leads to less rainfall. And at some point, a lack of rain could suddenly compromise the growing conditions of a region's remaining forests. The report says that in 100 years, global warming, widely blamed on the burning of fossil fuels in cars, factories and power plants, could take over. main source of damage.