Giving Compass' Take:

• Adele Peters highlights concerns listed in a UN report that found that 1 million species are at risk of extinction because of human intervention. 

• How can funders work to mitigate the environmental damage caused by humans? 

• Learn how to fund environmental issues. 

The natural world is declining in a way that’s unprecedented in human history, and that’s not just because of climate change. A new report–the most comprehensive study of life on Earth ever completed–lays out the threats in detail, beginning with one staggering fact: Around 1 million animal and plant species are now at risk of extinction.

More than a third of marine mammals and more than 40% of amphibian species are threatened, according to the report, compiled over three years by hundreds of experts for the UN’s leading research body on nature, who drew on over 15,000 other studies and sources to compile the report. Human activity has significantly altered three-quarters of the Earth’s land and around two-thirds of the marine environment. The changes aren’t just a loss for wildlife. They pose a significant risk for our own life-support systems. Hundreds of billions of dollars worth of crops are at risk from the loss of bees and other pollinators. As many as 300 million people face a higher risk of floods and hurricanes because of the loss of coastal ecosystems. And as forests disappear, we’re losing one of the best tools we have to combat climate change.

Read the full article about species at risk for extinction by Adele Peters at Fast Company.