Thread by @ThierryAaron

These headlines on the latest @WWF @ZSLScience Living Planet Index are completely wrong and misrepresent the reports findings.

Here's a short thread on what the report actually show🧵

Before I begin, let me be completely clear: The destruction of nature is a massive threat, equal to that of the climate crisis.

It is vital that we reverse the losses to biodiversity, & that will require systems wide transformation to our economies! 2/n
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

The @LPI_Science is is a measure of the state of the world's #biodiversity based on population trends of monitored vertebrate species globally.

The index shows a staggering and alarming decline since 1970 3/n

@LPI_Science It is important to understand that the index is a composite that shows the *average* decline in sub-populations of the species that are being monitored.

Because of the somewhat abstract nature of the index it can lead to common misunderstandings:
livingplanetindex.org/about_index

When we take a closer look -

"the number of species which have positive and negative trends are more or less equal, this means that the magnitude of the declining trends exceeds that of the increasing trends in order to result in an average decline for the global LPI."

This is also what we see at the population level...

So you can see that claims that "70% of animal populations have been wiped out" or that "we have wiped out 70% of animals" are not at all accurate interpretations of this index shows us 7/n

The continued decline of the index is bleak news, but if we know that many populations are increasing we can learn what works from that.

As @ConservOptimism says "amongst the stories of loss there are inspiring stories of regeneration and positive change"
conservationoptimism.org

Given the continued #AttackOnNature I believe we need to go much further; its not just protecting the environment & conserving species, ultimately its about our survival on this planet!

Please read this excellent paper by @CharlieJGardner & @JMBecologist

https://twitter.com/charliejgardner/status/1453669667353112583

I'm glad to see that @guardian have updated their headline - that's much better.

I hope that @thetimes will do likewise! /end

https://twitter.com/_HannahRitchie/status/1580495103373647874

I see @_HannahRitchie of @OurWorldInData has also done a thread on the new @LPI_Science.

Worth checking out:

https://twitter.com/_HannahRitchie/status/1580473520022179840