TIL: We Have Lost 50% of Wildlife Since 1970 | Today I Learned

So one thing that really surprised me was from 1970 to 2010. You know, in 40 years, we've lost over half our wildlife population.

In 2014, there was this study that was done, and basically what they do is look at elephants and tigers and fish and all these sorts of animals that we consider very, very important. They look at how they change over time, and they found that from 1970 to 2010, we had a 52% decline in those numbers.

It wasn't until we started industrializing everything—industrializing fishing, industrializing energy production, and all these kinds of things—where we started to really impact these environments in a way that was no longer sustainable.

It's not until we see the impact that it has on the environment, the impact it has on other species, that we start to think twice about what we're doing. The amazing thing about a lot of these ecosystems and the amazing thing about the environment is it's actually pretty resilient to change.

So if we just stop doing the small things that are damaging it, it'll bounce back. You have to believe that we can make a difference, that we can save these species, or we could protect these areas, and that it's not a lost cause.

One thing that maybe people don't know is that there are glow-in-the-dark sharks. [Music]