Fact 1: Half of All Animals Have Disappeared

If you didn’t think that human beings had any part in our changing planet, a shocking new report released by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is bound to open your eyes. The organization’s annual Living Planet Report reveals heartbreaking details about the state of the natural world.

One of the most alarming?

Fact 1: Since 1970, populations of many animals have dropped by more than half.

You read that right: In the 40 years from 1970 to 2010, 52 percent of the populations of many of the planet’s vertebrates – mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish – has vanished. The World Wildlife Fund's Living Planet Index tracks population trends for more than 10,300 populations of more than 3,000 species.

That sad fact is just one of many hammered home in the 180-page document about the dire state of ecosystems around the world. And according to the WWF, humans are largely to blame as we kill animals for food in unsustainable numbers and destroy their habitats.

“A range of indicators reflecting humanity’s heavy demand upon the planet shows that we are using nature’s gifts as if we had more than just one Earth at our disposal,” Marco Lambertini, WWF International's director general, writes in the report. "We are jeopardizing our future,” he says.

For more sobering facts, read on.

Fact 2: Humans are largely to blame for disappearing animal habitats.

The Tokyo skyline stretches as far as the eye can see.

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Just look outside your window and you’ll likely see one of the major reasons animals are disappearing: We're pushing them out of their natural habitats.

In the study, researchers found that for 45 percent of the species they studied, habitat loss or change was responsible for declining numbers in animal populations.And human-driven activities like agriculture, urban development and energy production were the major culprits. In other words, the more we build, the less room we leave for our furry, winged and four-legged friends.

Another major factor is that we rely on animals as a foodsource. Hunting and fishing were to blame for another 37 percent of the decline of vertebrate populations.

Fact 3: Freshwater wildlife populations have dropped by 76 percent since 1970.

Freshwater wildlife has taken the biggest hit of any other group, a startling 76 percent.

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Of all of the species studied, freshwater wildlife has declinedat the most alarming rate, by 76 percent. That includes fish, but also amphibians, river mammals and shorebirds.

The reason? Human activities like waterextraction, dam building, river controland pollution all destroy river animals' natural habitat, according to Scientific American.

“Rivers are the bottom of the system,” Dave Tickner, WWF’s chief freshwater adviser, told The Guardian. “Whatever happens on the land, it all ends up in the rivers.”

Fact 4: Marine wildlife populations have decreased by 39 percent.

Turtle populations have fallen by 80 percent since 1970.

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From sardines to huge baleen whales, animals in our oceans are declining as well, according tothe Mother Nature Network.

Turtle populations have taken a tremendous hit.Destruction of their nesting grounds and hunting has led turtle populations to decline by 80 percent, according to The Guardian.

Fact 5:South American wildlife has declined by 83 percent.

We all know that our rainforests are being exploited, but here's proof: In South America, tropical fish, amphibians, reptiles and birds have declined at a dramatic and continuous rate since 1970, largely because most habitat destruction in the past 40 years has taken place in the tropics. Along with deforestation, tropical animals have also had to contend with over-exploitation and invasive species.

For comparison, populations of vertebrate animals in North America have declined by just 20 percent.

Fact 6: Wildlife declined in low-income countries, but increased in wealthy nations.

Wealthy nations outsource resource depletion to poorer ones.

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Researchers found that wildlife declined by 58 percent in low-income countries, but increased by 10 percent for wealthy nations. At least part of that statistic may be because wealthier nations are able to fund more conservation efforts, but on the flip side, the data reveal something disturbing.

According to the WWF, wealthier nations are simply outsourcing resource depletion.

Fact 7: We need 1.5 Planet Earths to sustain humanity.

We need the equivelant of one and a half Earths to sustain humanity.

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A second index in the report calculated our "ecological footprint," or the scale at which humans are using up natural resources compared to the amount of space on Earth needed to produce them, The Guardian reports.

A growing population means there are more mouths to feed, and for the past 40 years, we’ve used up our natural resources faster than they can be replenished.We are cutting down trees before they mature, fishing our oceans faster than they can repopulate and producing more carbon than the planet can absorb.For four decades, our ecological footprinthas been the size of one and a half Earths.

In other words, we are quickly using up more than our planet can provide.

"This means we are eating into our natural capital," the WWF warns, "making it more difficult to sustain the needs of future generations."

Fact 8: We've overshot the Earth's ability to provide ecological resourcesby September.

Carbon emissions made up over half of our Ecological Footprint by 2010.

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Just nine months into the year, human beings have used up more renewable resources and demanded that our planet absorb more carbon than the Earth can sustain in an entire year. That's mostly due to our heavy reliance on fossil fuelslike coal, oil and natural gas,which produce carbon emissions.

In fact, more than half of our ecological footprint by 2010 was made up of carbon emissions.

Fact 9: The country with the biggest ecological footprint will surprise you.

China and the U.S. have the highest overall Ecological Footprint.

(World Wildlife Federation)

It should come as no surprise that two of the biggest, most industrialized nations, China and the United States,would have the biggest Ecological Footprint overall. But the nations guilty of having the biggest footprint per capita are actuallyKuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, mostly due to oil extraction, according to iO9.com.

"If all people on the planet had the footprint of the average resident of Qatar, we would need 4.8 planets. If we lived the lifestyle of a typical resident of the USA, we would need 3.9 planets," says the report.

Fact 10: There is hope.

Tiger populations in Nepal have risen 63 percent since 1970.

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There is evidence that conservation efforts have worked, at least for some species. The populations of both tigers in Nepal and mountain gorillas in Africa have risen sharply through concentrated preservation efforts, the creation of protected lands and a rise in eco-tourism.

And the WWF said it hopes that the report will inspire people and governments to continue to work towards sustainability in the future.

“These are the living forms that constitute the fabric of the ecosystems which sustain life on Earth, and the barometer of what we are doing to our own planet, our only home,” Lambertini writes in the report. “We ignore their decline at our peril.”

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