We are in danger of forgetting what the climate crisis means: extinction | Martha Gill

Since 1970 , wildlife populations have declined on average by 73% .

Since 2015 , we have lost a number of species forever: the golden toad, the Pinta giant tortoise, the mountain mist frog, several bats and birds.

We heard at Cop16 that 46,000 species face extinction, including a third of the planet’s trees.

We care about animals perhaps, in Britain at least, to an unreasonable degree.

We are, after all, the nation that flew cats and dogs out of Kabul in August 2021 as the Taliban terrorised the city.

Could we not be making better use of this rather pathological empathy we have for furry creatures?.