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Originally Posted by OMG!WTF!
You just saw that this week? That one has had people upset for the last 15 years.
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That story was from 2006, and a friend just posted it on Facebook today.
As far as I can tell, new predictions suggest a collapse of the marine ecosystem by 2100 if improvements are not made.
https://phys.org/news/2019-03-biodiv...oUZzFwXI5dfM2s
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Without action, more than half of the world's marine species could be on the brink of extinction by the year 2100, according to UNESCO.
Marine biodiversity loss hinders the ocean's ability to provide food for our growing population, with an estimated three billion people dependent on fish as their primary source of dietary protein.
We're also economically dependent on healthy oceans. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, the ocean provides the world with goods and services worth at least €2.2 trillion every year.
Some effects of biodiversity loss are less tangible. Many of the chemicals used in medical drugs and industrial compounds today came from marine plants and animals. With less known about the oceans than the moon, potentially useful marine organisms could be wiped out or seriously depleted before they are even discovered.
"If we lose biodiversity, we lose the opportunity to discover these crucially important compounds," said Professor Roberto Danovaro, president of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in Naples, Italy.
Restoration
The good news is that in the oceans, ecosystem restoration can cause species that disappeared from a particular region to return.
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