Biodiversity

"Mining the deep sea is as destructive as strip mining the mountains of Appalachia, extinguishing whole ecosystems with a single blow."

"The current legal system fails to represent the intrinsic value of nature, with laws and decision-makers typically only considering economic or human interests," said one advocate.

Unless preventative action is taken, there is "a high risk that we will make the same mistake again."

"Securing nature is investing in our self-preservation."

"Today's rule will have devastating consequences for some of America's most iconic species, including the grizzly bear, whooping cranes, and Pacific salmon."

"In the midst of a global pandemic, it is now more important than ever to take unprecedented and coordinated global action to halt and start to reverse the loss of biodiversity."

More than one in four of the 120,372 plant and animal species assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature are at risk of extinction.

"We must curb the high risk trade and consumption of wildlife, halt deforestation and land conversion, as well as manage food production sustainably."

"Successful implementation of the Paris agreement targets could help reduce extinctions considerably, possibly to 16% or less by 2070," according to lead author Cristian Román-Palacios.

The research "adds to a growing body of evidence for alarming, widespread losses of biodiversity and for rates of global change that now exceed the critical limits of ecosystem resilience."