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UN report: Loss of plants, animals making a lonelier planet

WASHINGTON — New United Nations scientific reports diagnose that Earth is getting sicker, losing plants, animals and clean water at a dramatic rate.
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United Nations report looks at shrinking biodiversity in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa. (File photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

WASHINGTON — New United Nations scientific reports diagnose that Earth is getting sicker, losing plants, animals and clean water at a dramatic rate.

Scientists meeting in Colombia looked at shrinking biodiversity in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa. They report Friday that nowhere is doing well.

Study team chairman Robert Watson says shrinking biodiversity means less food and clean water for people.

The reports project that by the year 2050, if current trends continue, the Americas will have 15 per cent fewer plants and animals than now.

They forecast that in Asia there will be no fish stocks for commercial fishing by 2048.

Scientists say that 28 per cent of the species that live only in Europe are threatened now.

The reports say Africa could lose half of some bird and mammal species by 2100.